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To maintain their competitive edge in 2024 and beyond, telecom companies have to stay ahead of emerging industry technologies. QA serves as a linchpin in this process, helping ensure the smooth implementation of innovations.  

In this article, we’ll take a look at the key telco trends for this year and explore a QA strategy to launch high-quality telco software in an era of unprecedented change. 

Navigating the trends reshaping telecom industry in 2024 

Trend #1. 5G  

Surpassing 1.5 billion connections by the end of 2023, 5G has firmly established itself as the fastest-growing mobile broadband technology of recent years. This statistic underscores the immense potential that 5G holds for transforming connectivity worldwide. By 2030, the GSMA professionals predict that 53% of the population will be using 5G, 35% — 4G, 8% — 3G, and 1% — 2G. 

Telecom trends 2024

Source: The Mobile Economy 2024 

The reach of 5G networks continues to expand across various regions from urban centers to remote rural areas while offering ultra-fast speeds, low latency, and high capacity.  

Moreover, the advent of 5G is driving innovation in various industries. In healthcare, it facilitates real-time remote surgeries and high-definition video consultations between patients and healthcare professionals. In entertainment, 5G delivers immersive virtual experiences that allow users to enjoy multiplayer games with on-the-fly responsiveness and minimal lags.  

As the adoption of 5G-enabled devices and services continues to grow, telecom companies should focus on ensuring seamless network performance, smooth operation of mobile and web applications and computing centers, and strong security to provide customers with the full potential of 5G technology. 

Trend #2. Broadband connectivity  

2024 marks a significant milestone in the expansion of broadband connectivity. Consumers are witnessing a proliferation of options for accessing the high-speed Internet driven by advancements in terrestrial wireline, terrestrial wireless, and satellite technologies.  

Nowadays, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite Internet are gaining momentum, particularly in remote regions. These technologies help offer viable options to traditional wired broadband services, bridge the digital divide, and extend access to previously inaccessible areas. 

Trend #3. AI-driven solutions  

AI-driven solutions are now becoming increasingly prevalent in the telecommunications industry, enabling operators to: 

  • Optimize network performance. By adjusting routing protocols and network topologies, AI-powered networks can adapt to changing conditions and traffic loads, ensuring consistent user experiences. 
  • Enhance cybersecurity. By analyzing network traffic patterns and identifying suspicious behavior, AI-driven security systems can proactively mitigate cyber attacks, protecting sensitive data and infrastructure from harm. 
  • Deliver personalized services to clients. By leveraging customer data and behavioral insights, AI helps telecom companies tailor service offerings and recommendations to individual preferences, increasing their loyalty and receiving more revenue opportunities. What’s more, with AI seamlessly integrated into chatbots and personalized AI assistance, they can elevate their client support. AI-driven networks enable efficient problem-solving and service sales without human intervention, minimizing operational expenses. 
  • Ensure predictive maintenance. With AI at the core, telcos continuously monitor the state of their equipment, analyzing statuses and identifying anomalies in network performance. By leveraging AI algorithms, they proactively resolve issues before they impact customer experience, reducing downtime and enhancing overall reliability. This data-driven approach allows them to predict potential failures and take proactive measures to address them with the hardware, including cell towers, power lines, and servers in data centers, ensuring seamless operations and uninterrupted service delivery.  

Driving successful adoption of telecom trends with the help of QA  

QA is indispensable to ensure the successful implementation of telecom trends and the reliability of IT products. Let’s explore key testing types, helping deliver high-quality telco software. 

All tests can be devided into two groups: 

  1. Functional and non-functional testing 

Performance testing 

Performance testing holds a pivotal role in guaranteeing the seamless operation of critical systems responsible for delivering telecommunications services. By meticulously subjecting telecom solutions to stress and load tests, companies can ascertain whether they are able to promptly respond to a myriad of subscriber requests. This involves scrutinizing both client- and server-side functionalities, ensuring that vital components, such as billing and CRM systems, efficiently receive and process requests. 

Performance checks help telco operators release highly reliable software while delivering exceptional user experiences and maintaining customer satisfaction. 

Functional testing 

Functional testing ensures that all features of telecom products work as intended. It extends to verifying applications designed for customers, user support systems (chatbots or live chats with operators), back-end software for telecom, data centers, CRMs, ERPs, and additional services (media streaming platforms). 

This involves testing various scenarios, inputs, and outputs to verify the correct behavior of the software. For instance, validating the functionality of invoicing processes. 

As part of functional testing, UAT helps ensure the seamless integration of new systems, modules, or integrated solutions within telecom businesses. While traditionally associated with third-party integrations, UAT testing extends beyond this scope to encompass newly developed systems or modules as well. 

The aim of UAT is to validate business requirements, verify functionalities, and assess user experience across various applications and platforms. For instance, in the integration of self-service portals and mobile apps, UAT testing enables QA teams to simulate real-world usage, such as managing accounts, viewing usage details, and paying bills. Additionally, it allows verifying the usability, performance, and security measures implemented to protect customer data and transactions. 

Security testing 

Security testing is paramount to safeguard sensitive customer data and safeguard against cyber threats, considering the extensive network and cloud infrastructure involved. Telecom companies should be highly vigilant about potential data leakage and breaches, as they handle end-user financial and personal information. Moreover, with numerous entry points into telecom networks, including interconnected software, like CRMs, billing, and operational systems, comprehensive security testing is a must-have. 

By conducting penetration testing, businesses simulate real-world attacks to identify potential weaknesses in telecom systems, such as weak authentication mechanisms or exposed network ports. 

To uncover entry points for cybercriminals and assess the safety posture of telco infrastructure, companies can introduce vulnerability scanning tools, including Acunetix, Burp Suite, and Nessus. 

Test automation 

Telco providers can automate any tests, but it’s more profitable to automate repetitive test scenarios, reducing manual effort and accelerating the QA workflow.  

To enhance testing coverage and efficiency, telecom providers leverage automated regression testing. By automating test processes, companies perform more tests in less time, significantly boosting coverage and accuracy while neutralizing the risk of human errors. These automated scripts can be reused repeatedly, optimizing overall testing efforts and ensuring comprehensive coverage across software updates, patches, and configuration changes. 

  1. Testing based on the product type 

OSS/BSS testing 

As OSS and BSS form the backbone of telecom services, it’s mission-critical to enable their seamless running. OSS/BSS testing encompasses a range of QA activities tailored to validate the functionality, reliability, security, and performance of telco systems, which are responsible for key functions, involving billing, customer management, and network operations. 

With OSS/BSS checks, businesses also verify the accuracy of billing calculations for various service plans and validate the CRM system to make sure that customer information or service requests are accurately captured and processed. 

Migration testing 

It’s imperative to test the data and readiness of the system before moving to new OSS/BSS systems, such as billing or CRM platforms. This process involves migrating and validating large volumes of data to ensure seamless integration and prevent disruptions to routine subscriber activities. Additionally, it’s necessary to address security vulnerabilities and optimize performance to uphold uninterrupted subscriber activities. 

Cloud testing 

Cloud computing plays a pivotal role in modern telecom operations, enabling companies to scale resources up and down, such as networks and servers, as well as storage on-demand. Leveraging cloud infrastructure, telecoms can keep and process vast amounts of user data remotely, ensuring cost efficiency and global reach. 

Therefore, businesses can introduce cloud testing to assess the reliability, scalability, and security of telecom products delivered through cloud infrastructure. 

With cloud tests, operators can also confirm the security posture of cloud-based telecom solutions, including data encryption, access controls, and compliance with industry standards. 

To conclude 

The telecommunications landscape is continuously evolving. 5G, broadband connectivity, and AI-driven solutions are set to redefine this sector in 2024.  

To implement these trends with confidence and assurance, businesses can encompass a comprehensive QA strategy that involves performance, functional, OSS/BSS, migration, UAT, cloud, security, and automated testing. 

Reach out to a1qa’s team to get support in ensuring the high quality of your telecom software. 

As companies navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of medical technology in 2024, it becomes imperative to stay attuned to the latest industry trends, helping revolutionize patient care and eHealth services.

However, to realize the full potential of these innovations, businesses should focus on quality assurance to smoothly implement them. Stringent QA practices serve as a linchpin to ensuring seamless integration of these cutting-edge solutions into existing healthcare systems while allowing companies to meet the highest standards of security, compliance, and reliability.

Let’s look at the predictions of the most impactful digital health trends for 2024!

Trend #1. Generative AI

Generative AI presents a promising avenue for numerous tasks within the healthcare area both related to administrative functions and care delivery. It helps streamline workflows, optimize sleep monitoring, improve radiological imaging, and better predict clinical outcomes. It can be especially valuable in:

  • Conducting smart diagnostics. AI-powered solutions use data from electronic health records, imaging, patient conversations, biometrics, and wearable devices to assist doctors in making accurate diagnoses.
  • Creating personalized treatment plans. AI tracks an individual’s sleep, nutrition, exercise habits, environmental influences, and vital signs to enable a comprehensive understanding of patients’ health needs.
  • Managing population well-being. AI processes large sets of information, identifies risk factors, and analyzes the prevalence of disease within specific demographic groups to improve health indicators.

Another use of generative AI in 2024 is customizing medical products and services. According to McKinsey research, about 1 in 5 US consumers prefer to receive personalized offers and recommendations. Thus, with gen AI, healthcare leaders will be able to provide more tailored experiences, foster greater end-user engagement, and increase patient satisfaction.

Trend #2. Cybersecurity

With the proliferation of digital medical platforms and the increased exchange of sensitive patient information, safeguarding data against cyber threats emerges as a top priority for the healthcare industry.

Just look at these daunting statistics: the number of data breaches in eHealth increased by 93% from 2018 to 2022, with the average cost of one leakage reaching $4.9 million.

Therefore, organizations should adopt robust cybersecurity measures, including encryption protocols, multi-factor authentication, and systematic security audits, to protect end-user privacy, prevent malicious attacks, mitigate the risks of unauthorized access. It will also help uphold consumer trust, ensure regulatory compliance, and maintain the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive medical information.

Trend #3. AR/VR

The AR/VR market size in healthcare is increasingly growing. According to Statista, in 2022, it totaled $2.3 billion while is expected to reach $25 billion in 2030.

AR/VR market size in heathcare during 2022-2030

Source: Statista

And it’s not a surprise. Companies invest in these technologies as they bring numerous benefits to the table and can be applied for:

  • Medical education and training

AR/VR can simulate realistic medical scenarios, allowing healthcare experts to practice surgeries, clinical procedures, and diagnostic skills in a safe and controlled virtual environment.

  • Remote consultations

Telemedicine has become an essential component of modern healthcare delivery, enabling people to access medical care from home at any time. AR/VR technologies offer more immersive and interactive experiences for both patients and healthcare providers. With the help of AR/VR technologies, patients receive personalized treatment plans to address their concerns, while healthcare providers can conduct examinations remotely.

  • Complex surgical operations modeling

Professionals can use AR/VR to visualize patient anatomy in three dimensions, plan surgical activities, and imitate arduous procedures before performing them in real life, reducing the risk of errors.

  • Anxiety treatment

1 in 5 US adults suffer a mental illness. However, only 47.2% of them received the required therapy. AR/VR can bring significant benefits as it promotes a comfortable and risk-free environment for receiving treatment and confronting fears.

With AR/VR innovations at the core of their business strategies, companies can stay ahead of the curve while enhancing the delivery of patient care, improving clinical outcomes, and revolutionizing medical training.

QA practices to implement 2024 eHealth trends with ease

With these trends in mind, we’ve compiled a checklist, featuring 6 key testing types, to assist you in navigating through incorporating eHealth trends in a hassle-free manner. Take a deep dive!

Testing type #1. Cybersecurity testing

Conduct comprehensive safety assessments to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities in eHealth apps, safeguard patient data against unauthorized access, and ensure the confidentiality of sensitive information.

Testing type #2. Compliance testing

Validate adherence to relevant healthcare regulations and standards, such as HIPAA, FDA, and GDPR, to mitigate legal risks and maintain consumer trust and confidentiality.

Testing type #3. Integration testing

Ascertain that different modules, databases, and external systems within eHealth products communicate smoothly to mitigate the risk of integration failures and data discrepancies.

Testing type #4. Performance testing

Assess the speed, scalability, and reliability of eHealth software under different scenarios to detect and eliminate performance bottlenecks and ensure consistent and responsive end-user experiences. In case your app is integrated with AR/VR, assess how well it operates under real-life conditions.

Testing type #5. Accessibility testing

Confirm that eHealth solutions provide inclusive and equal access to medical services, including their AR/VR features, for individuals with diverse needs, involving those with disabilities or language barriers.

Testing type #6. Functional testing

Ensure that healthcare products and embedded AR/VR elements within them meet specified requirements and operate as expected while user interactions, data processing, and system workflows have no inconsistencies.

QA checklist

Follow the link to download the checklist.

Briefly

In 2024, healthcare providers can leverage these industry trends — generative AI, cybersecurity, and AR/VR — to stay one step ahead of market competition and innovate the delivery of patient care.

As the process of incorporating tech tendencies into current workflows entails several hurdles, businesses should focus on QA practices to ease the path. They include cybersecurity, compliance, integration, performance, accessibility, and functional testing.

In case you’d like to get professional advice on improving the quality of your eHealth solutions, get hold of a1qa’s team.

As we approach the culmination of 2023, it’s time to take an opportunity and reflect on the wealth of knowledge that has transpired during a1qa’s online roundtables.

Let’s cut to the chase!

Unveiling the importance of a1qa’s roundtables for IT leaders

Recognizing the paramount importance of fostering a dynamic exchange of QA insights and best practices, a1qa hosts a series of monthly online roundtables designed for top executives.

These exclusive sessions help bring together diverse IT experts to deliberate on topical QA-related issues, such as quality engineering trends, test automation, shift-left testing principles, among others.

Roundup of 2023 a1qa’s sessions

The first quarter roundtables overview

During this period, participants discussed three relevant topics — “A practical view on QA trends for 2023,” “How to get the most of test automation,” and “Dev+QA: constructive cooperation on the way to project success.”

Analyzing QA trends helps business executives to proactively shape their QA strategies, ensuring they are in sync with the industry’s evolving landscape. While automation assists them in accelerating IT product’s delivery, enhancing its quality, and reducing operational expenditure.

Also, the attendees talked about the best moment for QA to step into the SDLC stages and methods to make the communication between Dev and QA more efficient.

The second quarter roundtables overview

This period was marked by three vibrant conversations:

  1. “QA for complex software: tips for enhancing the quality” — IT peers shared the challenges they encounter when testing sophisticated systems and the ways to overcome them.
  2. “How to release a quality product within a limited budget” — C-level reps exchanged practical experience on mapping software quality expectations to a QA strategy and optimizing QA costs.
  3. “How to improve QA processes with shift-left testing principles” — participants discussed how shifting QA workflows left allows businesses to identify and fix defects early on while speeding up the release of top-quality applications.

The third quarter roundtables overview

“A closer look at the field of automated testing” took center stage during the 3rd quarter, emphasizing how to derive more values from test automation supported by AI and behavior-driven development.

The fourth quarter roundtables overview

During the last quarter of 2023, IT executives have already engaged in two insightful conversations — “How to organize testing and increase confidence when starting a new project” and “Rough deadlines: how to deliver better results in less time.”

At the October event, the attendees revealed the best QA approach to choose to be confident in a project’s success from the outset, optimize ROI, and reduce business risks. The November roundtable helped the participants voice their ideas and share real-life cases on meeting tight deadlines without compromising software quality.

Thanks for being part of our roundtables in 2023!

To sum up

Our journey through the diverse and insightful roundtable discussions hosted by a1qa’s professionals with in-depth QA and software testing expertise throughout 2023 has been a testament to the company’s commitment to fostering knowledge, collaboration, and innovation in the ever-evolving landscape of IT.

From exploring emerging QA trends to delving into the nuances of automated testing, each session has played a pivotal role in helping IT executives shape future strategies.

Need support in refining the quality of your IT solutions? Reach out to a1qa’s team.

In 2022, 196.7 million Americans made purchases during Black Friday, and 87.2 million of them opted for online shopping.

Consumers are not just waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sell-offs ― eCommerce sales reached $1.04 trillion in 2022 in the USA alone. Making millions, billions, or trillions during these periods is not a fantasy. Flawless operation of websites and mobile apps that withstand the visitors’ influx can make it a reality.

In this article, we’ll discuss 5 testing types, that help ensure high eCommerce software quality and outperform the competition during the wildest shopping weekend.

1. Performance testing

2. Usability testing

3. Functional testing

4. Cybersecurity testing

5. Localization testing

#1. Performance testing: Are you ready for a spike in shoppers?

The main driver of software failures during holiday sales is online traffic surges. The matter, of course, is that consumers anticipate Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping year-round. The most crucial question is, “Will my IT solution handle it?” That’s where load testing should come into play to identify critical system bottlenecks under required/peak loads as well as verify such aspects as response time, pressure levels, and the maximum possible load that the app endures.

Customers constantly refresh web and mobile apps’ pages (and 25% of users abandon them if the load takes more than 4-6 seconds), adding and removing goods from the cart. If the software is not stress-resistant, it fails to work under such conditions and may crash or lead to security issues. Here, stress testing helps assess the upper limits of app capacity as well as ensure the high quality of a CRM system used to process online orders.

#2. Usability testing: Glitch-free navigation and interface

Easy browsing, user-friendly navigation, handy catalog ― all of this helps cut down the time to figure out how the app works.

Usability testing detects weak points in UI/UX while providing an intuitive interaction with the eCommerce product. No one wants to spend hours trying to understand how an online store operates — as a result, people turn to rival platforms where everything is crystal clear. So, first and foremost, companies should focus on the system’s ease of use, which 97% of consumers consider their top priority, even over security-related issues (89%).

#3. Functional testing: Does the software meet business requirements?

Cyber Monday. Imagine that the consumer decided to purchase the newest robot vacuum cleaner model, placed the order, and clicked the button to get to the next page. But nothing happens. An awful customer experience is the only thing one receives on this day.

To help the client enjoy the shopping journey, functional testing is a must-have for your business strategy. Shopping cart, login systems, order placement and tracking, various payment options — all of these are equally crucial. Can the user utilize them as intended? Do they work correctly? Are they developed in line with the requirements? Functional tests help answer these questions and prevent the system from unexpected freezes and crashes.

#4. Cybersecurity testing: Are the payments safe enough?

In 2022, Kaspersky detected 38,596,555 phishing attacks targeting users of online shopping platforms while the average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million. What to expect during Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, in case your software isn’t prepared for attacks?

get-ready-for-black-friday-to-cyber-monday-shopping-5-testing-types-to-include-in-your-QA-strategy

Source: Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023

Consequences of poorly protected web and mobile apps include loss of revenue, reputational damage, operational disruption, and more. But the main question: how to bypass it? In addition to general safety tests (to assess the overall security level), it’s vital to implement penetration checks — how does the software operate during an unauthorized intrusion?

And the security of online transactions ― the entire process from order placement to the payment itself should be frictionless allowing for complete protection of customers and their sensitive data, helping increase their loyalty and trust.

#5. Localization testing: Show your app to end users worldwide

During Cyber Monday and Black Friday, customers are reluctant to translate anything they are unfamiliar with or try to understand prices reflected in currencies that they are not accustomed to. An easy task for localization tests ― to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of the buyers and provide seamless user experience for various regions.

So, to delight consumers during holiday sales, businesses should consider reflecting all worldwide shoppers’ cultural features, values, currency, and other critical aspects and ensure that everything works properly. These are some types of localization testing that may be of help:

  • Compliance checks ― to validate that the application supports the formatting standards of a particular language and correctly displays currencies, convention rates, phone numbers, addresses, dates, etc.
  • GUI checks ― to verify any discrepancies between the localized content and the interface.
  • Functional checks ― to detect the glitches in system operation caused by localization.

And of course, do not forget to take one step back. When introducing new functionality, verifying the previous features is imperative to avoid possible software bugs and mitigate the risks. Since the regression tests are repetitive, companies may automate them, reducing testing cycles and redirecting human resources to more valuable tasks.

The ultimate QA checklist to ensure your eCommerce platform peak performance during Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Dive into our checklist and discover how meticulous QA helps enhance 12 pivotal software areas, allowing businesses to withstand the influx of shoppers during holiday sales.

get-ready-for-black-friday-to-cyber-monday-shopping-5-testing-types-to-include-in-your-QA-strategy

You can download the checklist here. 

Summarizing

To enjoy good deals and big profits during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s crucial to pre-test your web and mobile apps and make your QA strategy smart all the way from performance to regression testing.

In case you need professional QA support to prepare your software for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, reach out to a1qa’s experts.

To mark World Quality Day, celebrated every second Thursday in November, let’s embark on a journey to into 6 reasons why businesses should take exceptional care of software quality.

So, without further ado!

Why companies shouldn’t neglect the quality of it products

Reason #1. Enhanced brand reputation

Consider this example: a company has released an eCommerce solution that frequently goes down during pre-holiday season sales due to the influx of shoppers, resulting in cart abandonment and lost transactions. Unhappy buyers do not bring any profit and leave negative reviews that instantly go viral and influence the opinions of potential clients.

Let’s also take a look at another case. Users flock to a streaming platform in anticipation of an enjoyable and uninterrupted viewing journey, but encounter persistent navigation glitches, buffering issues, and video freezing mid-playback. Results? Reputational harm, requiring the company to invest in significant software quality improvements.

To prevent such situations, I always suggest businesses incorporating QA processes from the initial SDLC stages. They identify errors earlier and so release high-end applications, providing positive and reliable customer experiences.

A solid reputation allows an organization to stand out among its competitors and create a favorable brand image. Moreover, satisfied clients are more likely to make repeat purchases, driving business revenue.

Reason #2. Reduced post-release expenditure

Identifying and eliminating defects at the development phase is much cheaper than addressing them after post-launch. If a buggy product gets into the hands of end users, it may involve costly emergency fixes. For example, a critical vulnerability discovered after going live may require immediate action, incurring unforeseen patching and incident response expenses.

If the fault appears in a financial application, the system may charge incorrect fees. This may result in compensation claims or even worse, regulatory fines.

In addition, relying on quality control allows businesses to prevent extra expenses for rework, like expensive architectural changes of the software.

Reason #3. Improved customer retention and satisfaction

QA plays a pivotal role in revealing and rectifying app bugs before they reach the end user. Thus, businesses ensure a seamless and trouble-free experience for clients while meeting or even exceeding their expectations. Later, satisfied customers become loyal brand advocates, recommending the organization’s IT products to others and contributing to business growth.

6-top-reasons-why-business-should-invest-in-software-quality

#4. Reinforced cybersecurity

In an era marked by the growing complexity of digital threats, companies can’t afford to overlook the paramount importance of software cybersecurity. A data breach or a privacy incident can erode confidence and tarnish the company’s reputation.

With QA at the core of their business strategies, they:

  • Uncover security concerns
  • Ensure high protection of confidential data (end-user information, financial records, addresses, e-mails) and prevent its compromise
  • Strengthen relationships with customers, boost their trust, and reduce churn rates
  • Avoid disruption of business operations, downtime, and revenue loss
  • Adhere to industry regulations, remain compliant, and avert costly legal consequences.

Reason #5. Accelerated software delivery

High-quality software is a catalyst for speeding up time-to-market due to streamlining development processes and minimizing delays associated with bug fixes and rework.

It allows businesses to respond to market demands more efficiently, ultimately enabling them to capture opportunities faster.

Reason #6. Simplified development processes and facilitated introduction of new features

When quality is a central focus, software architecture and design are typically more robust and flexible. This means that the existing codebase is less likely to present conflicts while companies smoothly integrate new features into IT solutions.

Moreover, rigorous QA practices help identify and resolve potential bugs in novel functionality during the SDLC phase, reducing the risk of post-launch problems. This approach negates costly rework and user dissatisfaction as well as minimizes disruptions.

Who can help you reach software quality excellence

While many businesses have in-house QA teams, 92% of G2000 companies opt for IT outsourcing. They get no more than:

  1. Domain-specific expertise. External specialists possess extensive QA and technical knowledge and a deep understanding of the latest QA methodologies, helping set up efficient QA workflows and enhance software quality.
  2. Cost reduction. Businesses avoid expenses associated with hiring, educating, and maintaining an internal QA team, such as salaries, equipment, and infrastructure.
  3. Focus on core competences. By entrusting the QA function to third-party experts, companies allocate their resources, time, and talent toward their main activities, such as software development or customer engagement. They enhance productivity and excel in their key areas of expertise, ultimately driving growth.
  4. Scalability and flexibility. As business requirements change, QA outsourcing can easily adapt to accommodate evolving needs. It provides flexibility, allowing businesses to scale their testing efforts up or down as needed.

Summing up

The six reasons we’ve explored with you in this article underscore the profound impact of IT product’s quality on businesses and their ability to thrive in a competitive landscape. I hope this article was useful for you.

If you need professional support to release high-end applications and attain the desired business goals, contact a1qa’s team.

On a final note, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the global IT community on the World Quality Day!

Thank you for your tireless work and diligence in ensuring that software products meet the highest quality standards and help businesses grow.

6 top reasons why business should invest in software quality

eCommerce sales are steadily growing. While in 2021 the market size totaled $5.2 trillion, by 2026, it’s projected to reach $8.1 trillion.

As the number of digital shoppers increases (they comprise 33% of the population!), businesses strive to provide an unrivaled shopping experience.

The research by Baymard Institute shows that approximately 70% of people abandon their shopping carts due to an app’s poor functioning. And some of the competitors earn more.

With this article, we want to help you outperform them. Explore 7 types of testing to release defect-free mobile commerce solutions:

  1. Functional testing to ensure flawless software operation
  2. Performance testing to ease congestion
  3. Cybersecurity testing to prevent data breaches
  4. Compatibility testing to provide consistent app experience
  5. Integration testing to seamlessly merge software components
  6. Usability testing to enhance user experience
  7. Test automation to accelerate software releases.

Functional testing to ensure flawless software operation

Functional tests help scrutinize that key software elements (main and description pages, product categories, shopping cart, search, filtering, sorting) operate like clockwork. They also allow spotting and fixing defects in the search bar, forms, and payment gateways before the launch.

With this type of testing, companies, provide enjoyable end-user experiences, and make sure that customers can navigate, select, and purchase items without roadblocks.

Perfomance testing to ease congestion

Have many of your consumers left your app because it was too slow?

90% of people abandoned websites in 2020. And the same is true for mobile solutions.

Fast-loading pages, images appearing on the screen in the blink of an eye, and smooth software operation under high traffic, especially during holiday seasons like Black Friday, are just a few usual buyers’ expectations. If you fail to fulfill these demands, 57% of users will choose to shop from a competitor.

From idea to buying: 7 testing types to make your mobile eCommerce solutions flawless

Source: Retail Systems Research

Conducting performance testing aids to:

  • Check whether the system handles the target load
  • Verify the platform’s behavior in extreme conditions
  • Test the program’s performance under various network conditions (3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi)
  • Measure the software response times during page loads, search queries, and checkout processes
  • Assess how the app handles multiple users performing actions simultaneously.

Cybersecurity testing to prevent data breaches

73% of eCommerce companies interviewed consider security to be a major business challenge. It’s no surprise why, just look at this example.

A year ago, cybercriminals gained unauthorized access to SHEIN’s, the online fast-fashion retailer, payment systems and placed the credit card data of 39 million customers for sale on the dark web. The result? The brand’s owner was fined $1.9 million.

Virtual stores keep large amounts of private details about users, such as home and office addresses, debit and credit card data, buying history. Even a single breach can have devastating consequences.

Adopting cybersecurity testing is the way to identify vulnerabilities within the app as well as ensure all sensitive data is well-safeguarded against theft or unauthorized access.

Compatibility testing to provide consistent app experience

Shoppers access eCommerce IT solutions from an assortment of mobile devices, each running on different operating systems.

How to protect your solutions against all of that? That’s where compatibility testing comes in, allowing organizations to guarantee that the app functions smoothly across various devices, browsers, OSs, and their multiple combinations.

Integration testing to seamlessly merge software components

Mobile solutions for eCommerce often rely on interconnected components: payment gateways, customer databases, inventory management, order tracking, third-party APIs, CRM and CMS systems. To ensure that they work in harmony and the data is transferred accurately, we suggest focusing on integration tests to eliminate transaction failures and costly breakdowns in production. Good one if you have a goal to repeat visits and purchases.

Usability testing to enhance user experience

No one wants to spend endless hours looking for their desired items due to poor search functionality. An intuitive, user-friendly interface and navigation are imperative to keep buyers engaged and increase conversion rates.

With usability testing, businesses identify and rectify issues related to confusing layouts, cumbersome checkout processes, and unclear product descriptions.

Test automation to accelerate software releases

In the fast-paced world of online shopping every second can be the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart. Here, test automation becomes a valuable asset to expedite QA processes and release cycles without quality compromise.

To get more, adopt test automation during:

  • Regression testing — to verify that recent changes don’t break existing functionalities.
  • Performance testing — to mimic real-world scenarios with a large number of simultaneous users and evaluate system behavior under different loads.
  • Compatibility testing — to validate software operation across as many combinations of devices and mobile browsers as possible.

Our case in point

One of the leading US-based manufacturers of home appliances requested a1qa’s support in boosting its eCommerce software quality and accelerating time to market.

So, the team helped increase the number of potential users by 30%, assured the seamless integration of the ready-made payment platforms and correct distribution of taxes, and cut the time required for smoke tests by 90%.

To wrap it up

From the first click to the final purchase, these 7 testing types — functional, performance, cybersecurity, compatibility, integration, usability, and test automation— allow eCommerce businesses to prepare high-quality mobile solutions for prime time.

Do you need assistance in reinforcing your eCommerce software quality? Contact a1qa’s team for professional QA support.

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Do you like to “Wait”? Well, of course, no one does.  

Imagine the families together in front of the screen. Hot pizza, sweet cocoa for kids, and… the beloved Christmas movie loads for minutes, crashes, or they can’t even log in to the streaming account. So, instead, youngsters watch Tik Tok, adults chat – the platform is switched off. No one likes to wait. This evening could have been a lot nicer. 

Well in real life, let’s recall when Netflix subscribers who rushed to watch the 4th season of Stranger Things. In return for their excitement, all they saw was the platform crash.  

The result? Churn. Netflix shares dropped by 65% due to losing more than 1 million subscribers in the first two quarters of 2022. 

Factors to keep in mind to win the “streaming tussle” 

The streaming market is growing offering an immense number of apps and platforms to choose from dozens of alternatives. Video streaming industry revenue alone is expected to reach $1035.87 billion in 2027 compared to $444.3 billion in 2022. 

Enable crash-proof streaming platforms for Holidays season

Source: Precedence Research 

Is digital transformation to blame? Well, mostly. Cloud-based solutions, AI, ML, etc. — all these trigger the necessity to introduce innovations into streaming platforms. 

During stay-at-home orders in 2020-2021, the demand for OTT services soared and is still incrementally growing, counting over 3 billion users worldwide.  

As for preferred viewing platforms, the mobile channel is the most popular among end users, with 68% of U.S. viewers saying this is their first option. 

The growing acceptance of portable devices in combination with an extensive range of high-speed Internet technologies such as 4G, 5G, and LTE accounts for the increasing use of video streaming. 

With all said above, how to prepare your streaming platform for heavy loads to let your subscribers enjoy their cozy winter programs? Read further to know how quality assurance helps avoid similar challenges and maintain a customer base. 

Top 5 testing types to fine-tune streaming solutions for Christmas 

If there is no time to compose a QA plan from the ground up, it’s never too late to perform sharp QA activities in time for the winter holidays. Let’s find them out and discuss why they are worth applying. 

#1 Performance testing 

Enable crash-proof streaming platforms for Holidays season

Considering all these parameters, QA engineers analyze the system under expected and heavy loads. Mimicking the activity of a given number of concurrent users helps find the upper limits of the load capacity, evaluate the system stability in the long run, and get ready for a large-scale influx of users. 

#2 Functional testing 

It’s all about testing the system within the pre-defined requirements and timely detecting software defects related to problems with logging in, subscription renewals, or subtitles and closed captioning. This enables a high-quality streaming solution, and end users not facing any problems on your streaming platform help you raise the rates. 

#3 Cybersecurity testing 

Working on a fee basis, some of the streaming platforms require users’ sensitive data that needs to be highly protected. By introducing cybersecurity testing, ethical hackers penetrate the system and search for possible loopholes to prevent the expensive fixing of data leakage. This is how companies strengthen customers’ trust and build a reliable long-lasting relationship with them. 

#4 Compatibility testing 

Millions of subscribers, various devices used for content consumption, billions of configuration options — all these scenarios reflect the streaming solution quality and its popularity among consumers. 

Checking the platform against a wide array of devices, OSs, browsers, etc. makes it available pretty much for every user’s gadget with low risks of bugs in production. 

#5 Usability and GUI testing 

Sophisticated search options, inconsistent user interface, unresponsive menus and buttons, and advanced tech features may frustrate end users, especially less tech-savvy ones. So, it’s no longer enough to rely on good content only, businesses need to create exceptional customer experiences – here’s testing the platform for usability and simple navigation of help. 

Final note 

To prevent subscribers from lagging content, companies should care more about the quality of their streaming solutions. 

Don’t let Grinch steal Christmas from your subscribers, contact a1qa’s experts to provide your viewers with a stellar performance streaming platform. 

The article was first published on a1qa’s LinkedIn. To read more about trends, QA news, and tech, follow our LinkedIn page.

Unpacking web 3.0 testing

In the part 1 of the article, we touched upon the meaning of Web 3.0 and its benefits for businesses regardless of the industry.

By being an evolution of the Internet, the metaverse is a highly complicated three-dimensional world that needs to operate accurately to provide impeccable immersive experiences.

So today, we’d like to walk you through the 8 most significant software testing aspects for ensuring the sound operation of Web 3.0 software.

1. Performance

The metaverse is quickly picking up steam worldwide – the overall number of followers of Roblox, Minecraft, or Fortnite exceeds 400 million, while in less than 10 years, we’ll witness 1.4 billion mobile AR users.

Just imagine what will happen if they all access software simultaneously.

Will it cope with peak load and remain operable?

Will it be able to sustain such a load every day?

What load limits does it have?

Server- and client-side performance testing helps find any limitations and bottlenecks (including latency issues), as well as ensure high speed, stability, responsiveness, and scalability of the metaverse under peak load conditions.

2. Cybersecurity

When adopting the metaverse, companies can confront multiple, completely novel challenges related to its security.

For instance, vulnerability attacks to achieve desired access, avatars tracking the virtual location of users, identity frauds that ruin people’s reputations, NFTs hijacking attack simulations to steal financial data, and copying digital stores to deceive consumers, just to name a few.

With the help of penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and social engineering, you can simulate diverse attacks to spot vulnerabilities and decrease the above-mentioned risks.

3. Functionality

Functional testing eliminates major and critical software issues before going live. It also ensures that features (for instance, authentication, payments, interaction with other users, proper work of audio and video, etc.) work as expected and comply with set requirements. Therefore, QA manual engineers apply from smoke to acceptance testing and validate defects to confirm that the reported issues are fixed.

4. Accessibility

The WHO states that there are 1.3 billion people across the globe with different disabilities. To offer an impeccable digital experience to all of them, organizations should confirm that the software meets global accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Therefore, we suggest ensuring that the metaverse provides audio or visual hints, has an alternative to controlling movements; the content is readable/easily understandable, and that everyone can successfully navigate the software.

5. Usability

Usability testing at the early implementation stage is the best variant to understand the ways real users interact with the software, what problems they face; assess how much time they spend on completing diverse tasks, and evaluate their satisfaction levels.

During testing of the metaverse software, the QA experts check whether the platform meets user expectations and is intuitive enough. They also identify flaws in interface design and logic, verify the simplicity of user journeys, make sure the quality of users’ locomotion is high, and more.

6. Integrations

To provide high interoperability of the metaverse and detect issues in the business logic of the software as soon as possible, it’s important to verify the quality of APIs.

Tests simulate end-user behavior, launch a chain of API calls, and help ascertain that APIs send requests and return the responses with the correct data.

7. Immersion

Immersion is especially significant for the metaverse ecosystem. If the level of immersion that the software provides is too high, end users are likely to experience cybersickness with unpleasant symptoms as headache, dizziness, eyestrain, nausea, etc. On the contrary, insufficient immersion will make it harder for users to fully delve into the metaverse.

The QA specialists ensure that while working with the metaverse, users don’t experience any discomfort and can fully plunge into the virtual world.

8. Localization

The QA teams focus on localizing the metaverse to provide end users with access to content in their native languages and make sure it’s tailored to the cultural specifics of their homelands. For that, they verify texts embedded into graphics, figures and currency, voiceover, subtitles, make sure that graphics and colors comply with the specifics of the target region.

Considering that the metaverse is a new, while at the same time a rapidly developing market, companies should often verify the quality of existing functionality.

Manual testing only can be challenging and time-consuming. To decrease overall testing time, optimize QA costs, increase test coverage, and reduce the probability of human error, organizations can make use of automated QA workflows.

Conclusion

Web 3.0 provides great opportunities for businesses from multiple industries due to decentralization, smart contracts, AI, advanced connectivity, semantic upgrade, better engagement, and uninterrupted service.

However, this technology is still rather complicated and challenging to introduce. To ease the process and ensure seamless digital experiences, companies can supplement the development activities with need-driven quality assurance – from functional testing to test automation.

Reach out to our experts to talk about your QA related issues.

A significant jump in the number of players occurred during the isolation of 2020, boosting the revenues in digital gaming to $174.9 billion in the same year. Today, over 3 billion people play video games to combat boredom, escape the real world, make new connections, and even learn new skills.

As the number of players grows, so does the role of QA to safeguard game integrity, fulfill end-user needs, and build their trust. Therefore, the question arises: how can an effective QA strategy help you release a first-rate game, be it on PC, console, or mobile devices?

We’ve got you covered: in this blog, we’ll walk through the reasons why quality assurance is a must and unveil testing types, helping deliver exceptional game experiences to consumers.

The pivotal role of QA for video games: 3 reasons named

Let’s delve into the reasons why QA plays a critical role for the gaming industry.

1. Optimized costs

By implementing QA early in the development phases, organizations track and eliminate defects before they cause any damage, like constant crashes or failed in-game purchases, and avoid expensive post-launch expenditures.

Just look at this case: due to high anticipation, CD Projekt SA compromised on quality to meet the release schedule of Cyberpunk 2077. The game failed due to dozens of bugs, which damaged the studio’s quality-first image. Fixing the issues cost the company almost $1b.

This kind of a misstep can be prevented with professional QA.

2. Advanced gaming experience

A buggy game is unlikely to be enjoyable for players, instead, it hinders gameplay, causes irritation, and generates a bunch of bad reviews. As a result, it tarnishes a company’s reputation, erodes loyalty, ultimately reducing revenue.

QA helps turn things around. By meticulously identifying glitches and technical hurdles, organizations ensure an immersive environment, fine-tune gameplay mechanics, and prevent lags and disruptions. All these contribute to an uninterrupted experience, keeping users engaged and enhancing their retention rates.

3. Improved safety and reliability

In-game vulnerabilities are of value to cybercriminals, allowing them to steal internal currencies, expensive digital items, and private information. According to Akami’s State of the Internet report, cyberattacks on player accounts and gaming companies increased by 167% in 2022.

Through quality assurance, businesses uncover injection points, reducing the risk of fraud and preventing cheating and unauthorized access.

7 core testing types to release top-notch, engrossing games

To deliver a high-quality game and provide an unsurpassed first impression, organizations can apply 7 critical types of testing.

1. Functional testing

Before the game goes live, businesses need to ensure that it meets the stated specifications and runs smoothly. Functional testing helps trace out issues related to audio and video, design, basic game mechanisms, and payment gateways, as well as errors in installation and launching.

2. Performance testing

In June, PUBG’s concurrent players reached over 376,000. Consider the high performance required to keep the game from crashing!

To ensure flawless operation, businesses should conduct stress testing. Since a sudden surge of users can lead to slow functioning, data losses, and security issues, it demonstrates how the game operates beyond its projected capacity.

Load testing, in its turn, allows checking the overall performance and identifying the maximum number of simultaneous players.

3. Cybersecurity testing

The global gaming market is estimated to reach $384.9 billion by the end of 2023. As the industry grows, so does the risk of cyber incidents.

Source: Statista

In 2019, cybercriminals discovered a vulnerability in Fortnite and gained access to 80 million accounts. They stole virtual currency, eavesdropped and recorded conversations, and used players’ credit cards to purchase items. No one wants to get in a similar situation, right?

So, how to mitigate such hazards? Through robust cybersecurity testing, businesses uncover weaknesses in cyber defenses, ensure sensitive data protection, prevent hacking and cheating, and safeguard in-game transactions.

As part of cybersecurity, compliance testing helps make sure that the game meets industry regulations to increase user trust and avoid hefty fines.

4. Compatibility testing

According to the Statista Global Consumer Survey, 54% of adults prefer playing video games on smartphones, 35% — on game consoles, 32% — on PCs or laptops, and 25% — on tablets.

To provide an unrivaled experience to all consumers, the organization needs to test compatibility across platforms, operating systems, and browsers.

As people use a wide range of hardware configurations (different phone models, graphics cards, processors, and memory sizes), it’s also critical to guarantee that the game runs smoothly on various setups without crashes.

5. Localization testing

To make the game enjoyable for players across the globe, companies should prioritize localization tests. It allows the adaptation of the content to the cultural nuances of different regions and ensures the translated version of the app is consistent and clear.

Localization QA helps identify bugs in these three aspects:

  • National: incorrect currencies, calendars, metrics, number formats, and symbols.
  • Visual: improper fonts, truncated characters, and placement of graphic elements.
  • Functional: misleading commands and links, corrupted audio or text.

6. Usability testing

Consumers expect to spend a minimal amount of time figuring out how to navigate the game. After all, who would want to waste hours on it?

To make sure that players can effortlessly dive into the game, QA teams may suggest adopting usability testing. This helps identify glitches in the user interface, controls, mechanics, and menus, providing engaging experiences with no interruptions.

7. Test automation

To speed up QA processes, release a high-quality game faster, and stay one step ahead of the fierce competition, businesses often opt for test automation.

It’s especially beneficial in the long run as it reduces QA expenditure, saves efforts on repetitive tasks, and facilitates regression testing that is vital to make sure the newly added features haven’t affected existing functionality.

Closing remarks

As the gaming industry continues to grow and evolve, one thing remains constant: the pivotal role of QA in helping optimize costs, deliver advanced experiences to players, and improve software safety and reliability.

To make the game stand out in the IT market, businesses may conduct 7 core testing types: functional, performance, cybersecurity, compatibility, localization, usability, and automated ones.

Searching for QA support in releasing top-performing video games? Contact a1qa’s team.

The article was published on a1qa’s LinkedIn.

The telecommunications industry has recently been undergoing a rapid change. In addition to rapid B2B telecom market growth, which is expected to reach $181.35 billion by 2030, a global shift to remote work and the increased load on networks has forced providers to rethink their value propositions. Are you one of them? Read on.

Meeting the growing demand for higher-speed networks, mitigating cybersecurity concerns, and migrating to the cloud top the list of requirements for satisfying end users. 

Considering that the forecasted number of mobile audiences globally is projected to increase and reach 7.49 billion in 2025, maintaining a high quality of service becomes an absolute must. Among other things, fast and properly functioning software serves this purpose.

That’s where OSS and BSS come into play. How can we ensure their sound functioning? What actions should be undertaken when upgrading to the latest version or switching to another provider? Welcome to a1qa’s practical guide for finding these answers.

WHY DO OSS/BSS AND QA SHOULD GO HAND IN HAND?

OSS and BSS help companies streamline daily activities, improve operational efficiency, and mitigate business risks.

Through OSS, telecom providers oversee diverse operations with networks such as planning, configuration, service delivery, and fault management. BSS is responsible for the interaction between telecom companies and their end users. This stack includes billing, subscriptions, CRM, and more.

Why do these systems require thorough screening?

Reason 1. The activities performed within their work are related to the processing of sensitive and personal data of end users, and often such databases possess millions of records. When migrating to a new billing solution, for instance, these extensive quantities of data must be transferred in full and without affecting the routine actions of subscribers.

Reason 2. When undergoing a digital transformation and following industry trends such as deploying edge computing for increased bandwidth and low latency or switching to 5G for accelerated connection speed, chances are high that their overall complexity will place a burden on telecom providers.

Reason 3. Need-driven quality assurance makes the process of attaining business goals less complicated — 93% of service providers stated that it positively affects customer satisfaction and decreases the outflow of their subscriber base.

QA and software testing eases the process of modernizing digital solutions, ensures boosted cybersecurity and performance, and allows for wise allocation of budgets as QA consulting and analysis helps to accurately define the pool of necessary verifications.

TOP 10 TESTING TYPES TO ENABLE SOUND OSS/BSS OPERATION

1. Performance testing

You definitely need both server-side and client-side performance checks to make sure that OSS/BSS can cope with the required load, an ever-increasing number of transactions, simultaneous users, or to verify that the systems can be easily scaled up or down, depending on the changing project requirements.

For instance, an international telecom operator serving more than 60 million subscribers globally was to migrate to a new billing system which must withstand the load that was previously distributed between 25 solutions. They relied on us, and we opted to make a load testing methodology audit by examining the architecture of complex documents, analyzing both scripts and load generators, as well as monitoring the load, system status, and equipment during testing. This approach helped identify more than 100 bottlenecks that could negatively impact software throughput. Thereby, overall customer experience improved, contributing to the increased loyalty of end users.

2. Functional testing

OSS and BSS must operate in compliance with business requirements without any issues, the systems must seamlessly fulfill diverse operations with customer accounts, manage inventory, generate bills, and much more. For that reason, the QA engineers carry out different functional testing verifications — from smoke to acceptance checks — and verify separate software parts as well as the entire system.

Have a look at this example: a global distributor of telecom IT solutions for service providers, telecom operators, and their partners had a business goal to improve the quality of a convergent billing and customer service system, a comprehensive self-service system, and an integration platform.

What did we do? We developed test models and test strategy, functional tests, performed testing of new software versions, and ensured proper work of the high-priority functionality related to joining subscribers from multiple locations into groups for providing discounts on monthly communication fees.

In half a year, the company released sound functionality to the market with no defects detected during the acceptance testing.

3. Cybersecurity testing

OSS/BSS systems operate with personal users’ data and money transfer. So, it’s important to identify vulnerabilities, assess probable damage if there are security breaches, and confirm that the encryption of data at rest and in transit works fine, restricting access to information and diverse systems within OSS/BSS stack operates properly.

For that, task your QA engineers to perform penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, static code analysis, and other high-priority verifications. They will help minimize the risk of external attacks and save costs as defects will be detected at the earliest SDLC stages.

Also, companies’ IT teams must always accurately manage patches to have the latest security updates.

4. Regression testing

During the development process, a minor functionality tweak can cause unexpected software behavior and even critical failures. To make certain that recent changes and defect fixing haven’t broken well-working OSS/BSS parts, embed regression testing in the primary SDLC stages and check any functionalities that relate to introduced changes or fixed issues.

To decrease pre-release testing time on large-scale projects, speed up time-consuming, routine verifications, increase test coverage, and spot issues earlier in the development process, apply automated testing.

As an example, a provider of cloud-based software for inbound, outbound, blended, and omnichannel contact centers reduced huge technical debt consisting of 3,000 voluminous test cases with our test automation support.

5. Integration testing

The OSS/BSS stack is comprehensive and consists of multiple modules — inventory systems, documentation and reporting software, and other parts. To verify that these components smoothly integrate with each other and the entire telecom solution as well as that data is seamlessly transferred between them, utilise system integration testing using a big bang, top-down, bottom-up, or hybrid approach.

Read the full article here and delve deeper into the other 5 testing types that are instrumental in guaranteeing a top-notch OSS/BSS system.

If you’re ready to ensure high quality of your OSS/BSS system with professional QA support, contact a1qa’s team.

61% of end users expect the app to load in 4 seconds or less, and 53% of them abandon the software because of its slow start or other mobile-related issues (crashes, bugs, or freezes). This is one of the reasons why companies may need to focus on mobile app testing, helping produce IT products with the minimum number of errors.

In the article, let’s explore everything about mobile app testing: its significance and software aspects that are mission-critical to verify to launch a high-end product.

Why do you need mobile app testing?

Just have a look at this considerable leap. With the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets, fitness bands, smartwatches, etc., the number of app downloads reached 255 billion in 2022 compared to 204 billion in 2019. By the end of 2023, it’s predicted to hit 299 billion.

Source: Statista

Mobile apps have definitely become the hub of many industries. For example, eCommerce mobile IT solutions allow shopping online, instantly getting information about the latest promotions, and visiting several stores simultaneously within one click. Users are often impatient and want everything at once, so slow loading and bugs that prevent stable operation may form a negative impression.

Let’s also take the media industry. A clear example of our lives in today’s fast-moving world — whether in the car or on the plane, we use mobile apps to watch news and videos, listen to the radio or music, and write a few lines to friends or relatives. And to catch up with this pace, mobile apps literally need to fly.

To make sure they work as intended and meet customers’ needs, businesses adopt mobile app testing, as it helps enable trouble-free apps operation at any time, under different loads, and across multiple platforms.

Mobile apps testing: what to check?

Unlike web products, mobile ones are much more complex, containing a plethora of functions and more advanced methods of interaction, such as touch actions (e.g., scrolling and swiping) and voice functions (e.g., Siri), which require their constant verification.

Along with that, QA specialists should check the software in different situations: with and without connection or when it’s unstable as well as when switching from one network to another. After all, mobile apps work offline as well. If not testing all these cases, then it may result in numerous errors during the exploitation phase.

Let’s take a closer look at 6 main aspects of mobile solutions that are mission-critical to test to produce a high-quality product and get ahead of the curve with it.

Aspect #1. Functionality

What do people usually do when finding a bug in a mobile app that prevents its further usage? According to the Dimensional Research, 80% of customers won’t use faulty software more than two or three times.

To ensure that the IT solution works in line with the requirements and behaves as intended, companies implement functional testing.

Aspect #2. Performance

Nothing makes end users more excited than stability, especially when it comes to the IT solution performance.

Performance testing allows checking how the app copes with the regular and increased loads, and how it behaves when millions of consumers concurrently carry out online transactions. This is especially true for eCommerce and eLearning solutions to ensure smooth running during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or just an online lecture with a huge number of students.

Aspect #3. Compatibility

Incorrect display of the interface in different device versions, out-of-screen text, and inconsistency with other smartphone apps — these are some of the defects that arise when using the same software across various platforms. With compatibility testing, QA specialists eliminate these issues and ensure seamless functioning of the IT product across a bunch of devices, operating systems, browsers, and internet connections.

Aspect #4. Usability

97% of users believe that user-friendliness is the most critical quality of mobile apps. Companies may achieve this via usability tests, which are aimed at checking the convenience of software usage and navigation as well as the correct operation and display of all its elements.

For instance, if the company produces an eCommerce app, it’s core to verify the menu layout, product catalog, buttons, and other elements. Are they arranged conveniently? Can the user intuitively find them and perform the necessary actions? If so, then it may be a sign of good software usability that is able to satisfy customers’ needs and provide them with a positive user experience.

Aspect #5. Cybersecurity

Be it a financial, educational, medical, or other kind of an app, they all collect tons of data (addresses, phone and credit card numbers, and even health-related data). With the rapid shift of processes to the online space, more and more personal data is now stored on the web.

With cybersecurity tests, companies ensure strong protection of the software at all levels, eliminate leakage of personal information, and assure compliance with industry-specific and other international standards, such as OWASP, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc.

Aspect #6. Interruption

Does the app behavior change when interrupted by notifications, messages, incoming calls, and connected or disconnected networks? This is where QA engineers turn to interruption testing, helping make sure that the software handles various types of interventions. Without it, unexpected interruptions may cause interface crashes, data loss, software breakdown, etc.

Test automation to optimize mobile app testing processes

Some tests are too tedious and time-consuming to perform them manually. To meet the project deadline and accelerate the IT product release, test automation is imperative.

Let’s take cross-platform tests, which are indispensable for mobile apps to ensure their smooth running across a variety of devices. It will take an eternity to check all possible combinations manually — thousands (if not millions) of them. In such cases, test automation greatly hastens QA processes.

Performance testing is also a candidate for test automation (to check response time, scalability, speed, etc.). By automating performance tests, experts generate situations with millions of customers who are simultaneously using the software to see if it handles such a heavy load. A typical case of most eCommerce, financial, and eLearning solutions.

Closing remarks

Online shopping, consultations with bank employees, studying from anywhere, just socializing and entertaining — these are some of the reasons why we daily use mobile apps.

Businesses, in their turn, should take exceptional care about their IT solutions quality to provide consumers with the best experience possible (and test functionality, performance, compatibility, usability, cybersecurity aspects, and more).

In case you’re looking for professional support, reach out to a1qa’s experts to fine-tune your mobile app testing strategy to perfection.

It seems that we’re living in the era of total automation. Aren’t you or your friends, partners trying to automate as many processes as possible to maintain leading positions in the IT market and deliver quality at speed?

Wait! But what about manual testing? It’s equally crucial, and in some situations, indispensable.

In the article, let’s discover some aspects of functional testing: its importance for business, reasons to conduct it manually, key types to perform, and steps to introduce it correctly.

Why does functional testing matter?

Speaking of functional testing, two words come to mind — functions and requirements. It allows simulating the behavior of actual users and identifying critical defects in the software functionality.

To understand how hazardous bugs may be in production, let us recall one situation. TikTok users have experienced a dramatic drop in their followers and the number of views. They have zeroed out. Owing to introducing a new feature to the software, others failed to work correctly. Just imagine how much time it took to fix the glitch and how many impatient consumers switched to other social networks.

A pretty good example to showcase what end users do feel when the IT product doesn’t operate as intended. (According to the Global State of Customer Service, 58% of Americans just leave.)

So, what are the reasons to opt for functional manual testing?

The main purposes are to make sure that the features are operable, have fewer critical errors, and provide the expected results. Let’s look at the basic reasons why companies test their IT products manually.

Reason #1. Cost-effectiveness

Manual testing doesn’t require significant investments in the initial stages. It’s also a good option along short-term projects and when the app frequently changes, helping businesses cut down on additional finances (and no need to buy and maintain tools).

Reason #2. Usability from human perspective

Is the interface of the app user-friendly? Are the navigation structure and the search intuitive? And what about menu bars, buttons, and other elements? You get answers to these questions only after verifying the usability of the IT solution. When checking the software from an end-user angle, QA engineers find flaws in the user journey, interface, and information architecture of the software.

Reason #3. Flexibility

With manual testing, QA experts check the software immediately after making minor changes to it and there is no need to rewrite the code. An adaptive and convenient approach in today’s realities.

Functional testing types: what to choose to produce top-line software

Let’s see what types of functional tests are extremely important to release the software with stable functionality.

Type #1. Exploratory testing

In most cases, automated tests check only pre-written user stories. But what if we want to go beyond test scenarios and test unscripted situations? To do this, organizations introduce exploratory testing to find unexpected bugs that no one could foresee.

Such testing involves simultaneously studying app’s functionality, designing test cases on the fly (without documenting them), and then immediately executing them. A superpower!

It’s all about discoveries and cognitive thinking. According to the State of Testing Report 2021, 84% of companies practiced this type of testing in 2021.

Source: State of Testing Report 2021

Type #2. Interface testing

It helps ensure that the user interface meets the requirements, and the navigation is comfortable for end users — elements (colors, sizes, buttons, and others) are arranged logically, fonts are readable, text is aligned proportionally, pictures are displayed well.

This type of testing helps better understand user interaction with the IT product, allows testing gesture movements on various devices (not always possible with test automation scripts). All of these help enhance user experience (and we remember that according to the Forrester Research, boosted UX increases the customer conversion rate by 400%).

Type #3. Integration testing

Let’s have a look at one example. The X eCommerce app has dozens of modules: registration form, product catalogue, shopping cart, payment system, etc. Imagine that the users have completed all the necessary actions to make a payment, are waiting for their delivery, and eventually are ready to enjoy the purchases. Not so fast. They fail to do it due to a bug in the modules integration, preventing them from making an online transaction. Kind of a mess.

The outcome: the-X-eCommerce-app company obtains less profit and more losses wasting time on fixing the error.

Integration testing made on time helps detect major defects of integrated elements and produce an IT solution with all the components interacting correctly. And making users happy, of course.

Type #4. System testing

During interaction testing, you verify only two modules and their integrity between each other in isolation. System testing allows checking whether the IT product works as intended when all its modules are combined. It helps detect defects related to incorrect operation of app’s functions and errors throughout the entire user flow and show how the system behaves.

It also reveals problems with the environment compatibility, inconsistency with specifications, bugs in unexpected combinations of user data, failures in unforeseen user scenarios, and poor usability.

Type #5. Requirements-based testing

According to the research by IJIEM Journal, about 56% of defects are caused by poorly written, inaccurate, and ambiguous requirements. So, software specifications may be the reason behind the low quality of the IT product.

Source: IJIEM Journal

But how to make sure that the requirements are well-composed? Bear in mind the following characteristics:

  • Comprehensiveness (they contain extensive information about the system)
  • Clarity (they clearly define what functions the app performs)
  • Consistency (they have no contradictions)
  • Modifiability (they are changeable when needed)
  • Traceability (they verify the connection between the requirement and other project artifacts).

Type #6. User acceptance testing

To determine whether the software is ready for post-exploitation, it’s necessary to confirm that it matches the acceptance criteria. By creating the environment close to real conditions, the company checks system’s reliability. So, this testing helps prepare the app for production and ensure that it’s defect-free.

Concerning user acceptance testing, this is the final stage where end users come into play to test the product and define:

  • The way the IT solution works in real conditions
  • The results and whether they correspond with the pre-defined ones
  • The defects that hinder smooth app navigation.

Step-by-step scenario of functional testing: 5 basic phases

Now, when we know what types of functional testing are vital, let’s concentrate on 5 main stages, assisting in establishing a proper QA process.

1. Preparing

The project begins with defining business goals that help create a testing roadmap, select the right tools and QA practices to achieve the desired results.

2. Analyzing

This is the time to analyze functional and business requirements, develop a test strategy, plan, and test cases — all done to determine whether the software meets the specification. This phase allows identifying all possible risks in advance and taking appropriate measures to mitigate them.

3. Testing

When test cases are ready, a QA team can start verifying the software functionality. Depending on the app specifics and the project needs, specialists select the appropriate tools and types of testing to carry out.

When conducting tests, they attribute different statuses to them (passed, failed, in progress, not run, blocked) to check whether the actual outcomes correspond with the expected ones.

4. Optimizing

QA experts optimize test execution processes to reach defined deliverables within the given timeframe, check that everything is running as planned and there are no glitches.

5. Reporting

At this stage, experts document the obtained results to show a list of found errors along with recommendations for improving the quality of the IT solution.

In a nutshell

Among the reasons to conduct functional testing are cost-effectiveness, usability from human perspective, and flexibility.

Exploratory, interface, integration, system, requirements-based, user acceptance testing are amid those types that are better to perform manually. They help businesses to produce a stellar IT solution and check its functionality.

To set up a well-tuned QA process, companies may follow five basic steps: preparing, analyzing, testing, optimizing, and reporting.

In case you want to introduce functional testing, reach out to a1qa’s experts to get professional QA support.

When you are reading this, 83% of enterprise workloads are already in the cloud, according to Forbes, while SaaS contributes to 37% growth in revenue of software development vendors.

SaaS model has definitely influenced on changing the classic development processes and shifting them to the cloud. And it’s the right time, as hyper-digital transformation and the lockdown consequences made many companies accelerate releasing time for their software products, so they had to introduce new approaches and innovations into their IT strategies.

Considering such a progressive impact, the IT market is witnessing a surge of SaaS-based applications. The more solutions emerge, the greater demand is generated by businesses.

The measures that companies should undertake to retain customer bases and entice new users reducing their moving to other IT products include implementing proper SaaS testing.

In this article, we’ve gathered 9 QA factors that may help organizations strengthen competitive advantage and keep the leadership in the market. But let’s start with some SaaS peculiarities required to know before executing checks.

SAAS-BASED SOLUTIONS: 4 REASONS TO TEST

No wonder that this delivery model has led to increasing competition in every application category. Statista indicates that in 2020, the overall number of SaaS-based products has grown by 12% since 2015.

Source: Statista 

That means companies need to be ever more vigilant about providing quality experiences. The reason why businesses opt for SaaS is in its numerous benefits encompassing specific features.

Reason 1. Smart scalability

The option of changing software capacity promptly by request allows tenants to save costs on using cloud services. What’s more, SaaS vendors harness autoscaling mechanism that diagnose the current users’ amount and configure the software according to resize needs.

Reason 2. Regular and rapid updates

Within tight relationship with a SaaS provider, all the solutions’ defects and changes pass through it. As a rule of thumb, the processes of bug fixing and making modifications are fast and frequent. Therefore, one should define a robust QA strategy to optimize running a blizzard of test scenarios at short notice.

Reason 3. Multi-tenancy

SaaS opportunities to use shared cloud resources makes it affordable for a range of various organizations and streamlines software support. Within the approach to provide access to multiple customers, each tenant’s data is isolated and remains invisible to other subscribers. However, a vast number of connections to one vendor may cause difficulties with compatibility and integration. In this very case, improving APIs’ quality can be an escape solution.

Reason 4. Adjustable architecture

One more ground why companies choose SaaS is the ability to customize and specify settings perfectly matching business needs. And this requires thorough supervision, as an inappropriate operation of an IT solution may cause drawbacks after adding some changes that can provoke a growing churn rate.

Therefore, within these specifics, SaaS testing is more complicated than cloud and on-premises apps testing gathering a greater demand and a more profound attitude to QA activities.

9 POINTS TO GET UPSCALE SAAS-BASED SOLUTIONS

To provide a one-stop handbook on performing SaaS testing successfully, a1qa’s experts have prepared a list of 9 QA facets needed to cover the full testing scope and avert going live of bug-prone software.

1. Functional testing

Verifying all levels of connections between IT product components including units, their integration, and system testing, QA specialists check proper operation of functionalities. Noteworthy is that ordinary requirements encompass a myriad of cases tailored to miscellaneous user scenarios. Checking numerous configuration combinations make testing more exhaustive.

2. Performance testing

While on-premises apps are oriented at users’ environment, customer experience in SaaS-based products can be affected by other people. Thus, performance checks are essential — executing stress and load tests, QA engineers identify the upper limits of software capacity and evaluate its behavior under an expected number of concurrent users.

3. Interoperability testing

SaaS-based products entail flawless operation against different browsers and platforms as a prerequisite. Before carrying out interoperability testing, a QA team estimates the most preferable browsers and platforms and distinguishes ones used by a lower number of customers to exclude them. With verifying every browser or platform, QA specialists cover the full scope of testing configurations and provide seamless software operation for a wide range of users.

4. Usability testing

Intending to decrease the churn rate and make a long-term relationship with end users, companies strive to enhance customer experience with convenient app usage at the core. By providing straightforward information architecture, smooth workflows and interaction as well as visual readability and adequate response of generally used functions, one may satisfy consumers with a user-friendly application.

5. Security testing

Within sensitive data, SaaS-based solutions need to enable highly secure storage and disposal of information. Embracing miscellaneous accounts and roles, these applications require thorough validation of access control. To identify vulnerabilities and dodge data breaches, QA specialists perform penetration testing searching for possible bottlenecks.

6. Compliance with requirements

Winning the competition also assumes meeting worldwide standards. Depending on the industry, there might be a need to conduct software testing to comply with HIPAA checklist for eHealth products, OWASP safety recommendations for any-domain web and mobile apps, GDPR for enabling secure data storage and transfer worldwide, and much more.

7. API testing

Connecting with customers’ platforms and other 3rd-party solutions, API testing is a must amid organizations delivering SaaS products. With that, instead of using default user inputs and outputs, QA engineers execute positive and negative scenarios of calls to the APIs and analyze the responses of system interactions. Such approach allows making sure in advance that an API application and a calling solution work in a proper way. It mainly concentrates on the business logic layer of the software architecture.

8. Regression testing

Once having implemented a new functionality, it requires verifying that recent amendments haven’t impacted the developed features. Being an elaborate and cumbersome process, SaaS regression testing incorporates a range of test cases involving all testing types mentioned above and more.

a1qa has experience in delivering comprehensive QA assistance with solid regression testing. Get to know how our QA engineers performed software testing and streamlined assuring quality of the SaaS platform for public housing authorities.

9. Test automation

Alongside optimizing the immersive amount of QA activities and being a great time-saver, automated testing brings such business benefits as cutting QA costs, accelerating time to market, increasing team efficiency, and more.

Test automation is a pivotal element of the CI/CD pipeline that also may facilitate SaaS testing. With the concept of “release early and often” in the heart, it assumes continuously performing checks allowing delivery of faultless software in a strict timeframe avoiding expensive bug fixing.

SUMMING UP

Once having decided to build a truly bug-free SaaS application, there is a need to add SaaS testing in the IT strategy within its specifics including wise cloud resources consumption, prompt updates, multi-tenancy, and customization.

By introducing QA tips from the a1qa’s list, one may improve solutions’ quality, get required business and operational values, and decrease churn rates.

Get hold of a1qa’s experts to improve the quality of SaaS-based products.

Winning the competition is gradually converting into winning trust, as software success in the market depends on the users’ opinion.

Within gratifying end-user requirements as a top priority of businesses, forward-thinking companies strive to astonish customers and provide reliable software. Recent lockdown events impacted re-imagining business strategies and paved the way for accelerating disruptive trends of shifting towards more digital practices of working, communicating, and interacting with customers.

Blockchain may be of help with that through building users’ trust and improving efficiency, and this is why organizations are applying it to a greater extent each year. Statista report showcases the overall spending on this technology is expected to increase by 4.3 times by 2024.

Blockchain testing is becoming a must-have amid companies that are actively using this innovation, as it helps deliver upscale IT products and get confident in their stable and proper operation.

To provide you with a one-stop overview of holistic blockchain testing, we’ve prepared a list of the top 5 industries where introducing this technology is gaining momentum and blockchain app testing may streamline winning trust in the market.

Top 5 industries having blockchain as a pivot in an IT strategy in 2021

1. BFSI

Accounting for 60% of the technology world market value, it is the most blockchain-oriented sector dealing with valuable resources.

Transforming the classic investment and asset management operations and enhancing their transparency and security, blockchain is protecting financial institutions from malicious activity, fraud, and money laundering. Now, it is possible to quickly identify changes in behavioral patterns, trace reported illicit funds, and get deeper insights into valuating risks of all parties.

2. Retail

Retail is also processing a myriad of transactions. Besides, the evolution of these innovative systems paved the way for other activities, such as tracking the flow of goods or verifying payments through a supply chain.

Blockchain technology allows sellers to contact buyers directly without middle parties’ assistance streamlining the products journey and providing a clear overview of its pathway.

3. Real estate

Dealing with en masse paperwork, the future of real estate is about smart contracts helping eliminate commission rates and enable funding release when conditions satisfy both parties. Owing to expanding blockchain possibilities, it allows storing all the documents and transactions in an online space devoting minimum efforts and money.

4. Healthcare

Switching to the online storage of medical documents, this life-threatening industry is highly susceptible to cyber attacks. 93% of clinics have experienced a data breach over the past three years, and 57% of them have had 5+ cyber incidents during the same timeframe.

Considering growing caution in ensuring the safety of personal patients’ data and their trust to healthcare institutions, blockchain may be of help with that. Providing origin of drugs, medical products as well as transparency around health-oriented supplies and therapies, it can help build confidence and propel the industry towards.

5. Government

By encompassing multiple operations related to financial transactions, registry, processing documents, and applying an old-fashioned approach to their handling, governmental software often operates slowly and is prone to instability.

Implementing blockchain-based solutions may revolutionize legal processes and help eliminate bureaucracy issues. Thus, governmental organizations may build trust with people using smart contracts, intellectual property rights, land registry, and many more.

Blockchain testing: helping get more value

Usually, blockchain initiatives start with proof-of-concept projects that prove value on a small scale. In 2019, the PoC segment held 72.6% of the market share. However, the troubles emerge when moving to production due to a lack of observability.

Blockchain market
Source: www.fortunebusinessinsights.com

So, how to get confident in proper work of blockchain systems? Yes, one of the ways is to apply a comprehensive blockchain testing package helping detect critical defects and ensure smooth going live. a1qa’s experts have gathered 5 QA tips for that.

Tip 1. Functional testing

To be confident in system appropriate operation, one should supplement introducing blockchain app with checking functionality. Testing business logic and covering possible users’ scenarios may contribute to accurately processing blockchain components and transparent and secure activities. Being a cornerstone of software testing, all the industries should consider its execution.

Tip 2. Performance testing

Embracing thousands of transactions worldwide every day, blockchain has the potential to add $1.76 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Considering this drastic increase in the volume of sensitive data processing, companies should perform thorough testing before releasing IT products.

Executing performance verifications may ensure resilient work of the system under heavy load and consistent quality of the software product. It is especially topical for industries handling massive information blocks like BFSI, healthcare, and government.

Tip 3. Integration testing

Connecting blockchain systems to various platforms, companies need to check their solid joint work. Integration checks may be an escape solution. QA experts verify the cohesiveness and operability of intersystem connections across all blockchain app environments and integrated components. So, they can identify critical points and ensure stable interoperability.

Interacting between multiple systems and devices, retail and BFSI are particularly in need of such checks.

Tip 4. Smart contract testing

Real estate and government industries are only planning to introduce blockchain. Dealing with a great number of documents, they are moving to online data storage and processing solutions. To provide apps stable functioning and users’ confidence, companies should consider timely diagnosing these platforms before going live.

Within business logic verification as well as testing digital signature and messaging features, QA engineers rectify software glitches sharply and ensure strict blockchain apps compliance with the pre-defined software requirements.

Tip 5. Security testing

Have you noticed that information is quite a valuable asset requiring thorough protection? Possessing sensitive data, BFSI, government, and healthcare should pay great attention to safeguarding it properly.

But how can companies accelerate obtaining reliable and highly secure ecosystems within market fast pace? The answer is — through security checks. In this very case, QA helps ensure that keys storage and encrypting system effectively ward off potential security attacks.

For that, accounting for multi-layered safety structure in blockchain, QA specialists supervise that one security layer doesn’t affect the other.

These are principal testing types applied to blockchain apps. Of course, companies may harness a range of others depending on the business objectives. What’s more, test automation is also relevant in checking such platforms. It can optimize QA process and speed up time to market that is extremely crucial within fast-paced market evolvement.

Bottom line

Winning trust is becoming a prime factor of business success. To keep up with that and sustain leading positions, companies across different industries should update their IT strategies with technological trends and innovations.

Blockchain is one of the go-to ways to achieve customers’ confidence and provide them with efficient and safe virtual space for processing financial transactions, buying goods, getting medical assistance, concluding contracts, and performing legal operations.

Definitely, blockchain can have the greatest impact on BFSI, retail, real estate, healthcare, and government industries in 2021. So, all-inclusive blockchain app testing can become an indispensable measure to build trust with the target audience and accelerate the achievement of planned business objectives.

If you need professional QA assistance in ensuring the proper work of a blockchain solution, feel free to write to a1qa’s experts.

Aiming to astonish end users, BFSI companies have created dozens of new opportunities ― eWallets, online services paying, crowdfunding platforms, and much more. The further going into development, the more complex BFSI solutions are becoming.

Dealing with finances and sensitive data makes this industry strictly liable for the soundness and safety of the software created. Within its serious and conscientious character, the quality should become a top priority.

The World Quality Report 2020-2021 indicates BFSI has a higher degree of achieving targets than the other industries that took part in the survey. For instance, two-thirds (66%) of banking organizations cover all the software functionality through QA.

However, to set the leading position in the market is not as challenging as to sustain it. Let’s have a closer look at the QA role in developing the BFSI industry and how it helps keep the outcomes for a long time through 3 do’s and 3 don’ts in software testing.

QA for BFSI: yes or no?

The banking, finance, and insurance industry is a tidbit for hackers. This is why BFSI solutions are highly susceptible to cyber attacks. Moreover, the soaring number of online transactions assumes more opportunities to acquire sensitive data illicitly and opens new ways for criminals to target both individuals and organizations.

Some statistics indicate a 238% rise in cyber incidents on banks is a cause of the events of 2020, so 80% of companies have seen a surge in malicious usage. Thus, customers’ safety and privacy are gaining even higher rank, and this is where quality assurance is to be a paramount measure to avoid undesirable digital actions.

We gathered some tips on how to provide high quality of BFSI apps within the industry’s fast paces.

3 don’ts in QA or what may blunt the effectiveness of QA

Within a promptly evolving BFSI market, companies are striving to shorten the software development life cycle to speed up time to benefits. We have observed some of them apply measures that bring short-term results and impair both software testing and programming activities.

1. Do not cut test coverage to speed up QA processes

Compromising on some test cases and functionality under test might bring losses rather than benefits. It is worth verifying the entire BFSI solution to be sure its operation is stable and reliable. Otherwise, one might miss critical defects that may adversely impact the application in the go-live stage.

2. Do not follow false economy when it comes to test automation

Test automation is also a favourable method of accelerating release time that many companies turn to. However, organizations face challenges when implementing it owing to makeshift test automation. Within the lack of QA teams’ skills and poorly defined QA strategy, automated tests may be performed in a non-lean way.

For instance, if companies maximize test automation scope, further changes in functionality may slow down the QA processes due to time-consuming revision of the automated tests. On the contrary, a shortage of test automation cannot save precious time and the manual efforts may remain at the same level bringing fewer value or no value at all.

3. Do not lose a huge customer base part due to bad UX or slow performance

Despite of the extensive usage of portable devices, some companies compromise on mobile testing and perform web checks only. That’s why we may observe a decline in customers’ satisfaction with mobile offerings, as Deloitte demonstrates. The widespread error in mobile testing is leveraging emulators instead of real devices.

Mobile apps have already become a vast stratum, so they need to be tested thoroughly. Let’s ponder recommendations on improving QA that can turn the tide and ensure achieving desired outcomes.

3 do’s for productive BFSI software testing

Returning to one of the crucial business objectives, accelerating time to market, companies should implement novel approaches and technologies into a QA strategy to have a long-term beneficial effect.

1. Do opt for a professional approach to adopting test automation

The most pervasive way to derive these results is by introducing wise test automation. It assumes a balanced automated test scope and its application to features that QA engineers check frequently and change in several weeks.

Thus, it speeds up the processes and helps find bugs early in contrast with manual testing. To get more value, companies are starting to introduce innovations into test automation processes. Despite its slight beginning, the embedding looks confident and promising. In the picture below, you can see the top 3 aspects of reimaging test automation.

Test automation techniques
Source: World Quality Report 2020-2021

2. Do focus on mobile apps testing

Coming back to portable gadgets broad usage, the BFSI industry also is geared towards releasing mobile apps. According to J.D. Power’s recent survey on financial services, 54% of banking customers prefer using mobile apps.

So, as the demand for mobile solutions has increased, companies should do their utmost to provide end users with top-notch systems. Comprehensive mobile testing can help ensure stable network connectivity and flawless apps’ operation during third-party interruptions (income calls, notifications, charging, etc.).

3. Do rely on the enduring classic of holistic QA

QA for BFSI

The must-have testing types for BFSI solutions should include at least functional, security, and performance verification. Thus, one might be confident in the system’s operation following the pre-defined requirements, personal data privacy and safety, and stable work under heavy load. Testing types may vary depending on the IT solution’s purpose and specific business needs.

Extra: Do create space for implementing progressive testing approaches

Shift left testing and DevOps practices are becoming prevalent amid companies. Onboarding QA specialists at the initial SDLC steps paves the way for timely detecting defects and avoiding expensive bug fixing in the go-live stage.

Summing up

Within the fast pace of developing the BFSI industry, it is getting more and more challenging to keep leading positions in the market.

Some companies apply less effective strategies such as makeshift test automation, cutting the test coverage, and compromising on mobile testing.

We recommend rethinking these methods of speeding up the QA activities and implementing more progressive ones, like lean test automation, novel practices, and a balanced QA package.

Need support in BFSI testing? Get hold of us, and we will arrange a consultation with a1qa’s representatives.

Some years ago, companies were focused on optimizing operational processes, meanwhile, leaving the work on procurement, personnel, customer relationships, and more in the background. Considering the gravity of both internal and external activities, improving all in-house operations has become a clue to the maintenance of a competitive position in the market.

ERP systems turned out to be pervasive means of improving business processes. Statista’s report indicates that the world ERP software market revenue will reach $43 billion by 2021.

According to business needs and goals, companies opt for various ERP systems. Acumatica is a common platform amid small and mid-sized organizations. However, its implementation is not enough to be confident in data integrity and its stable operation. By applying software testing, companies can assure the systems are running like clockwork.

Otherwise, adverse consequences may emerge. For instance, due to some errors in the software, namely the lack of notification to the employee, an appointment with the client might be disrupted. In its turn, these issues affect the entire business and may lead to reputation decline.

How to avoid such cases? Read the article to explore the QA role in ERP systems’ flawless operation and its effective performance.

What if not to test ERP systems?

These platforms supervise all processes within the company — from procurement and delivery to financial transactions. They cover a great amount of information about products, employees, and customers.

With the advent of new technologies, many companies are shifting to the cloud storage. As Panorama’s survey on the ERP systems implementation and support showcases, over 60% of ERP software, including Acumatica, work with cloud technologies.

ERP usage stats
Source: Panorama Consulting Group

When implementing such a system, it is vital to ensure safe data migration to the cloud, as it may contain confidential information. Due to possible bottlenecks, the software is highly susceptible to cyber incidents up to intellectual property theft. Therefore, security is one of the essential issues under consideration.

Within massive blocks of information, businesses should keep data integrity and accuracy to prevent inconsistencies in the future. Other way, it may affect, for example, the volume of purchases that impact on the budget.

Data storing plays a pivotal role in introducing an Acumatica ERP system. Erratic data entry can impede business processes requiring extra time to regulate the issue.

To set a certain format and structure of a system, you need to take care of it in advance. Companies use big data technologies to address the challenge. Proper operation is another difficulty. Make sure whether the information is distributed among the corresponding databases assigned to particular activities.

Considering ERP software like Acumatica works with other platforms and browsers, appropriate integration should be carried out. It’s important to check its compatibility to dodge problems or lack of functioning at all. Aiming to add corporate software, also verify the interaction between them and all modules of the system.

ERP solutions process numerous activities every day and may operate 24/7. Due to such frequent and vast usage, the server can be overloaded. So, companies are to examine the system’s response to a heavy load: whether data is saved after recovery, whether some information is deleted during a failure, and many more.

Therefore, to leverage the Acumatica system and other ERP software with confidence pushing fear aside, you need to concern its reliability and avert all possible failure scenarios.

Holistic approach to ERP systems testing

Despite the differences in internal process management systems, a1qa’s experts recommend performing thorough testing of ERP software that covers all aspects and risks.

Functional testing

Once QA engineers have studied the documentation and business logic of the system, they proceed with the testing activities. Specialists verify the entire functionality in accordance with the requirements and identify defects. Before the new functionality is released, the QA team performs regression testing to check whether the changes didn’t affect the previously developed features. To make sure bugs are fixed, they conduct defect validation.

For Acumatica systems and other ERP solutions, it is crucial to check correct data storage both during migration and in the system itself. So, alongside functional tests, QA engineers review the data: proper distribution to databases, correct usage, information compliance with the previous storage.

Security testing

According to Panorama’s survey, about 30% of respondents are concerned about the risk of data breaches when introducing an ERP system. Two reasons are prevalent: the lack of information from cloud solutions (16%) and potential data loss (9%).

Security testing can help protect the ERP system from such cyber incidents. Harnessing penetration testing, experts simulate the actions of malusers, thereby checking the system for vulnerabilities.

Integration testing

In most cases, companies integrate ERP systems with ready-made software that increases the risk of malfunction. Therefore, system’s behavior is unpredictable. a1qa’s experts advise performing integration testing to identify defects and ensure stable operation of the platforms.

Moreover, you may embed additional functionality, such as an electronic signature, in the Acumatica systems and other ERP solutions. Here, the QA specialists check how the digital signature works with various documents, who can sign them, and what statuses the signed papers acquire.

Performance testing

A large number of data operations that are continuously carried out and numerous ERP modules can cause server restart or crash. Through load testing, one can evaluate the behavior of the system under the expected load. Stress testing determines the peak number of simultaneous sessions and evaluates the stability of the software product.

When executing performance testing, a1qa’s specialists use a behavioral approach, simulating end-user actions and setting test conditions as close as possible to real ones.

Test automation

The engineers write automated tests for the frequent checks, the business logic of which is subjected to rare changes, such as regression cases. So, it saves time for testing, thereby reducing iteration.

Besides, the execution speed of the autotests exceeds one of the manual checks. Within large data sets of the Acumatica system and other ERP solutions, automatic tests detect errors faster and minimize the human factor.

Testing automation also allows QA engineers to focus on performing other types of testing that are only executed manually, such as UI, UX, exploratory, ad-hoc, and others.

Effective QA for an ERP system

Performance is affected by a number of factors, including the methodology on the project. The most pervasive approach in the IT industry is Agile.

The main reasons for implementing Agile methods include accelerating time-to-market, managing rapidly changing priorities, improving productivity, and more.

However, the introduction and testing of ERP systems require another tactic. One of the best options is a combination of long-standing planning with traditional Waterfall methodology and short-term planning and task tracking using Agile practices. This scheme allows achieving the desired results and combining strategic objectives and adaptability.

A team with the necessary skillset is another indicator of effective testing. When onboarding specialists on a project, it is essential to conduct an introductory course so that QA engineers get acquainted with the requirements and business logic and further promptly realize the ERP system’s principles.

There are two variants of attracting QA talents: organize an in-house testing team or contact outsourcing companies. If you want to focus on higher-priority tasks, then hiring a dedicated team is one of the ways out of the situation.

Therefore, setting a well-defined approach and a testing strategy, including a QA team, paves the way for deriving planned outcomes and conducting efficient testing with minimal costs.

In conclusion

In a highly competitive IT market, companies are forced to optimize not only production processes, but also all internal operations by implementing ERP systems.

Thorough testing is a go-to means that ensures software soundness and stable operation, as compromising on quality may lead to repercussions in the process management, budget, and reputation of the business.

A comprehensive QA bundle — functional, performance, security, integration testing, and test automation — allows detecting software defects before go-live, eliminating them, and maintaining a competitive advantage.

Need help with quality assurance of ERP systems? Get in touch with us to have a consultation with a1qa’s experts.

Lockdowns, digital transformation, massive migration to the online space, changing trends and end-user needs…All this makes companies and enterprises from the media and entertainment industry re-image their business models and embrace novel software development approaches to stay at the top of the competition.

Being limited to harnessing various outdoor entertainment activities, people seek options on the Internet. Alongside applications of day-to-day tasks performing, an extensive range of media and entertainment solutions optimized to modern requirements has emerged.

During 2020, the businesses with mobile apps at the core focus became leading ones, as App Annie’s State of Mobile 2020 report indicates. The pervasive usage of portable devices is also reinforced by the worldwide stay-at-home period. People are more and more involving in digital entertainment, namely gaming, podcasts, audio streaming, and many more.

Within such a high demand for media and entertainment applications, ensuring flawless operation is a silver bullet. How can companies deliver impeccable software products and meet customers’ needs?

Software testing is a way out. Get to know in the article our insights on:

  • Tendencies of the industry
  • QA as a must-have for media and entertainment solutions’ development
  • A comprehensive software testing pattern for media and entertainment.

A new personalized era of media and entertainment

Within the modern market’s tenets and changed customer behavior, end users are geared towards enjoying media experiences uniquely adjusted to their personal preferences, contexts, and schedules.

Now, digitally empowered users want to exert greater control over what content to watch and when. This paves the way for developing software products in conformity with consumers’ wishes and needs. However, there is no one-size-fits-all way of how to gratify all the end users.

Companies should implement novel solutions that help make one’s media space personalized. Amid such innovations, AI algorithms are handy to gather personal data, process it, and provide consumers with new content.

People are more and more rejecting traditional TV bundles and harnessing specific ones through various over-the-top media services. OTT platforms, like Netflix or Hulu, have become a trend in recent years. Statista’s report indicates 74% of US consumers had a video streaming subscription in 2019, and that is an increase of more than 20% in four years.

Further parameters of the shift to active individualized consumption can be seen in the elevation of the smart home building. The core figure here is a smart speaker. Noteworthy is its usage is growing by leaps and bounds. By 2025, 75% of the US households will have a smart speaker in utilization, as Loup Ventures forecast highlights.

As they proliferate, smart speakers can become a conduit to the new frontiers for competition in the burgeoning industry of voice-related media, namely podcasts, music, and news.

Video games, especially eSport, take a substantial part of the media and entertainment industry. Assembling thousands of players and watchers, mobile gaming is becoming a new pillar of the eSport business. It also contributes to a huge jump in live viewership numbers for mobile eSports that have increased by 600% in 2019 compared to the previous year.

Therefore, the media and entertainment sphere encompasses almost every person, and to make end users feel confident in their media experience, IT solutions are to be tested appropriately.

Why test this non-life-threatening sector?

Many companies believe an application not dealing with someone’s health or money doesn’t require proper testing before going to production. Despite the field’s non-responsibility for lives and non-guidance to certain standards, as eHealth and BFSI industries follow, the media and entertainment sector is one of the most complex ones. Within an extremely high market competition, it embraces dozens of content types and an extensive range of devices.

According to PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020-2024, revenues of the global media and entertainment industry are rising steadily that means it is getting harder to be ahead of the competitors.

Media revenue
Source: PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023

Now, alongside improving content quality and increasing views and subscriptions, it is crucial to ensure IT solutions’ flawless operation to allure more customers. As the market contains thousands of options, end users have become more fastidious in choosing entertaining applications.

A seamless user experience and immersive content are the core concepts of media and entertainment business success. Software testing helps get confident in the delivery of upscale and competitive products providing end users with an impeccable digital entertainment journey.

Even strict budget and time constraints can’t prevent QA introduction. Due to Agile methodologies at the forefront, software testing adjusts to the circumstances and stays on guard of the IT products’ quality.

Applying holistic QA to soaring numbers of customers

Software testing is all about spotting defects sharply, enhancing IT solutions’ quality, and maintaining their adequate level. Alongside its apparent purpose, QA assists in deriving desired business objectives. Within the main media and entertainment goal of expanding consumption, quality assurance can help to reach it through proper and thorough testing services.

Improved CX is a cornerstone of media and entertainment business success, so a1qa’s experts recommend performing a comprehensive QA bundle.

  • Functional testing. Flawless and accurate operation plays a pivotal role in any-industry applications. By executing a full scope (from smoke to exploratory testing), one can timely detect errors and verify novel functionality didn’t affect the developed features.
  • Usability and GUI testing. Design and user-friendly interface are other aspects of end-users’ involvement. Usability testing results provide 360-degree visibility into how the customers see your applications and an understanding of the journey they want through the products.
  • Mobile testing. As there is a tendency to use portable devices, it is lean to introduce mobile testing encompassing cross-platform and cross-browser testing. Harnessing real devices ensures glitches don’t appear on customers’ phones or tablets. Providing complex QA assistance to a developer of online casino games, a1qa leveraged 110+ mobile devices to cover all possible defects and guarantee consummate UX.
  • Performance testing. With due regard to massive media and entertainment solutions usage, the number of consumers is steadily growing. Software behavior evaluation under an expected load, the upper capacity limits identification, simulating users’ actions — these all are about ensuring flawless real-life user journeys. However, performing some testing types is not enough. In order to get a high-end IT solution and stay at the top of this competitive market, companies should consider how QA processes are carried out. Keeping in mind all the extensive expertise, we do believe they require to be optimized and adjusted to modern working approaches.

Shift-left testing is one of the progressive strategies in an Agile world. Putting testing activities at the very project start, companies can avoid expensive post hoc defect fixing and provide a robust ground for thorough testing. Also, within a heavy workload and frequent releases, businesses should be faster while maintaining high software quality. Automated testing is a way out. Alongside streamlining testing processes and freeing up manual QA engineers, it contributes to QA costs reduction and time to market acceleration.

Summing up

The world is getting more and more personal, and the media and entertainment industry is no exception. Despite the field doesn’t deal with health or finances, it is more complex assembling thousands of users.

To reach a win-win solution between them, companies should consider trends amid consumers and innovative approaches to work. AI, OTT services, eSport, and voice streaming are getting more pervasive. Through a proper testing bundle and up-to-date working strategies, one can derive desired business outcomes and deliver upscale solutions meeting end-user needs.

Get hold of us to have a talk with a1qa’s experts on how to provide media and entertainment applications with stellar operation and improved CX.

The healthcare sector was definitely not that ready for an unforeseeable February situation forcing clinicians to re-image their attitude to novel technologies in medicine. Undoubtedly, innovations have become an inextricable part of the human experience.

People’s values are shifting, and digital age technology models are increasingly out of sync with them. Despite broadly benefitting from technology, people are expressing concerns about their usage and focus. They are turning to health more than ever to get answers about their day-to-day tension.

But how can one provide the ground for safer harnessing eHealth tools and ensure consumer confidence? Welcome to reading our article, focusing on the following:

  • Topical healthcare innovations
  • Why it is crucial to deliver high-quality eHealth apps
  • How to do it effectively.

Let’s get started.

Digital medicine trends

Gone are the days of mass services. Now, medical centers focus on personalized treatment, as every person feels different about the same disease. Genetic information, access to big data, and the Internet of medical things technology unlock the customer-centric approach.

People had to leverage non-standard solutions to surmount the hurdle of an unprecedented situation. Within lock-down, they interacted at a distance to solve any issue, including receiving medical care. Using telecom technologies, the number of virtual visits to medical institutions has increased by more than 15 times.

Smartphone usage has grown as well. Statista’s report showcases 70% of respondents prefer using mobile devices that have emerged to collect symptoms data, notify about risk zones, and provide information about contacts’ health condition.

For years, artificial intelligence has been one of the most pervasive technologies. According to the World Quality Report 2019-2020, overall investment in AI in the healthcare sector is higher than average, and more medical organizations are planning to introduce it.

Today, the innovation helps to identify diseases, select the necessary treatment, create the optimal drug formula, and much more. Frost & Sullivan estimates AI in the healthcare sector will grow by 40% per year, so its market share will be close to $6.6 billion by 2021.

More and more medical institutions are switching to electronic systems that store a large amount of patients’ information. Big data technology helps organize all the data and fit it into one format that is available to any healthcare center.

Machine learning algorithms are able to predict the means of treatment for patients. Novel technologies are paving the way for an all-embracing grasp of health essence, therefore, people will possess ample opportunities to choose suitable medical care.

Considering all mentioned above, the volume of the global eHealth market is forecasted to be more than $630 billion, as Statista showcases.

ehealth market
Resource: Statista

The gravity of quality assurance in eHealth

In line with global digitalization, IT solutions development and sophisticated new technologies implementation are increasing in healthcare institutions. Only thorough testing before going live one can guarantee unhindered software operation under real conditions.

Noteworthy is that every mistake in a medical solution triggers adverse consequences that threaten human well-being. For example, the occasional substitution of health test results may cause inappropriate treatment or no treatment at all. Incorrect configuring clinical equipment can spoil condition parameters that will also affect the health state.

By shifting to electronic document management, information security in medical centers is up the ante. Miscellaneous personal data is often of doctor-patient confidentiality.

Like all applications, medical solutions are at risk of cyber attacks and malicious data usage. From time to time, we hear unpleasant stories of customer information being shared with third parties, including credit agencies, advertising companies, and private organizations. Yes, that sounds like a big problem.

Every information system in the healthcare sector should be developed in compliance with the security and confidentiality requirements defined by GDPR in the European Union and HIPAA and COPPA in the USA. These measures allow users, for example, to ask for any information erasure or explanation of the reasons why a particular piece of data needs to be stored.

Thus, timely testing prevents possible bottlenecks and shortcomings in IT solutions, thereby avoiding data leaks, customer concerns, and deterioration of the institution’s reputation.

QA in eHealth: effective testing

Agile has been a mainstream development approach in the healthcare sector for the last two or three years, the World Quality Report 2019-2020 indicates. However, businesses still confront challenges in their usage, especially in providing an appropriate level of test automation.

Within great responsibility for human well-being and a number of issues during development, healthcare applications need thorough testing. The choice of services depends on the IT solution’s peculiarities and business goals.

Functional testing

The importance of functional checks is reinforced by a1qa’s success story about providing QA services to a leader in medical equipment production.

The specialists were responsible for testing the system applied for collecting, storing, and processing session data from blood transfusion devices. When estimating solutions’ safety class according to IEC 62304 standard, it was assigned the Class C — death or serious injury is possible.

Within such severity of eHealth solution, it was vital to onboard professional QA engineers, who were to pass an introductory course. After getting satisfactory results, they verified all functionality for compliance with the requirements and the IEC 62304 standard.

During functional testing, the team performed smoke tests to ensure the absence of critical issues that could impede further activities and harnessed new feature testing. Regression testing and defect validation helped ensure changes didn’t affect previously developed units.

Performance testing

A large amount of data involves multiple operations that may affect the system stability. Therefore, a1qa’s experts recommend checking the software response to a heavy load and identifying the peak number of simultaneous sessions before the product goes into production.

a1qa helped ensure flawless operation of the medical system applying the user behavior approach. Simulating real users’ actions, the experts gauged the velocity of the system reaction to operations and analyzed its behaviour under a certain load.

Testing big data

Integrity and completeness are the cornerstones of a confident and safe patient data transferring process ubiquitous for medical institutions.

a1qa has experience in ensuring data accuracy for a corporation that provides professional services to pharmaceutical companies. The main challenges were verifying the complex business logic of databases composed for customers and a great volume of work. Despite the issues, the specialists worked out an approach for streamlined big data testing and improved product quality.

Test automation

Healthcare IT solutions require completely accurate testing. Alongside QA processes optimization, test automation helps minimize the human factor, namely errors. However, this testing type is not a silver bullet. The World Quality Report indicates companies developing eHealth products face challenges with test automation implementation due to the inappropriate skills and tools and hindrances with testing environments.

To move on, organizations should leave the manual process behind and introduce a strategy of lean automation. That means the case is worth to be automated if the feature is to be checked frequently and isn’t likely to change within a few weeks.

In a nutshell

A new era of medical care paved the way for novel core concepts including information technologies, patient-centric approach, and process improvement. But the only thing that remains static is that errors are inadmissible.

Innovation has turned into assistants helping save lives. eHealth solutions need comprehensive and effective testing to match doctors’ excellent performance.

Wish to get high-quality healthcare software products? Get hold of us, and a1qa’s experts can help you address the challenge.

We are all people and care a lot about our money – don’t even argue. When creating financial technology (fintech) apps, companies are mindful of the way we spend and save money and are knocking themselves out trying to make day-to-day used software more reliable, accessible, and simple.

With no surprise, end users are moving their financial activities to mobile. The App Annie’s State of Mobile Report 2020 shows that consumers used finance apps more than 1 trillion times throughout 2019. We cannot deny the role of mobile in the everyday management of our finances starting from mobile banking to payment apps. Smartphones, as well as smartwatches, are literally squeezing out plastic cards from the market, and consumers do not mind.

Fintech businesses aim at delivering products or services driven by innovation. Developers try to streamline user journeys of working with mobile apps. Just adding the features of a finger or facial recognition and contactless payments helps meet consumers’ expectations multifold.

Due to the adoption of AI, ML, RPA, from the end-user perspective, the mobile experience is becoming quite alluring allowing you to forget you are using a fintech app and imagine it is a social media software or a game. In addition, by personalizing communication with customers’, businesses get a raised engagement.

So, we see the power of fintech apps. However, with the financial software complexity, the more force you get, the more responsibility one should take for its development. Complexity – what are we talking about? Financial technology manages, processes, serves, and delivers vital user data that is considered to be private and sensitive (credit card info, social security numbers, etc.).

The financial industry, as well as healthcare and government, is a highly regulated environment. Surprisingly, organizations working within such rigorous regulatory requirements have a higher cost of a data breach. With $5,86 mln of average data breach total cost in the financial industry, it is the second highly-measured industry after healthcare ($6,45 mln).

Data breach by industry
Source: IBM Ponemon “Cost of a Data Breach” report 2019

With all that, fintech applications – be it a mobile, web, or other software types – should get special treatment of QA. To know more about quality assurance significance and which testing types we recommend each app to pass through, keep reading.

Quality assurance in fintech: Boiling the ocean

Software defects that are seen and found by users not just irritate them, but scare that their private and financial data is under risk. Also, fintech products are diverse and can entail multiple financial areas like payment systems, lending, mobile banking, investment, and many more.

Therefore, they have to obtain a customer-centric testing strategy, which should take into consideration the following aspects:

  • Data confidentiality and security of private and financial info
  • Compliance with regulatory issues for financial transactions
  • Transactions processing process peculiarities
  • Users’ request processing speed
  • Multi-level functionalities
  • Accessibility to all potential users
  • Hard-to-handle complex customers DB
  • Multiple variations of used devices for accessing apps
  • Possibilities of security threats and breaches

Denis Kulchavy, Director of banking systems testing department at a1qa, provides his opinion:

“While giving significance to QA and software testing, companies can offer their consumers tech-oriented software products tested specifically for the selected target audience. Apart from providing error-free code, the QA engineers can help reduce efforts and budget.

For the customers that are new market-makers, the businesses can increase delivery speed, put in their hands a high-quality software, and get the improved financial experience.”

7 testing pillars of a basic fintech application

As with any other software product, financial technology products should pass a range of testing types. Bearing in mind their multi-tier functionality, we will get to the bottom of each check.

1. Functional testing

Testing fintech app functionalities is a huge concern, which differs a lot from classic software testing scenarios, as it includes at least work with financial transactions and sensitive data. A QA engineer should explore the app from inside out and delve really deep in the BFSI area itself. And it is logical to get that ALL possible test cases are to be envisaged covering alleged risks in the features.

To ensure the app meets the requirements, testers are also to assess the level of interactions with other systems and software components.

2. Security testing

This is the ever-evolving issue in fintech app checking while using and storing personal, financial, and banking information of the consumers. Due to third-party payment gateways and money transfers, the system becomes a garlic bread for hackers. Not to let them steal the data, testing veterans conduct pen testing allowing perform the ethical hacking when thinking as a QA engineer but acting as a violator.

This is how it becomes clear how the app reacts to cyberattacks and helps find areas of vulnerabilities or risks.

For the 9th a1qa summer professional conference, our security testing specialists prepared a presentation based on the real project. Having worked with the client’s online banking system, the experts have found some critical vulnerabilities connected with brute-force attacks. Have a look at the highlights below.

Brute force attacks by a1qa

3. Data protection

Hard to imagine an industry that uses data more frequently than in financial technology. Said so, protection and managing all information is an essential question to be answered.

Databases should be tested for integrity, smooth migration, and quick loading. Creating a realistic set of data requires a holistic approach, as a tester has to always remember about the security of info.

4. Compliance checks

As a well-known fact, financial companies must work with respect to a regulated set of rules depending on the geographical or industry zone. For collecting or processing the European Union’s residents’ data, we talk about GDPR. In the United States, the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) adopts the EU rules for California residents, Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA) sets privacy and security requirements, the State data breach notification laws empowers all states to inform customers about security breaches involving personal information.

And compliance testing of a fintech app helps ensure it meets the regulation staying attentive to frequent amendments in legal provisions.

5. Performance testing

For mission-critical applications (and those developed within the financial technology industry are kind of this), load testing should start early within the SDLC. With the shift-left approach, it is more cost-effective to fix the identified software bottlenecks and care a lot about the quality during all development journey.

By stressing the app with a specific expected load, the QA engineers get the results on possible performance impact and can assure that the system can provide the necessary speed for processing user requests.

The challenge of load testing – setting up a fintech environment – can be easily solved through the implementation of the appropriate toolset, which can help enter high-security parts of the infrastructure.

6. Accessibility testing

While assuring the quality of the fintech app, the QA specialist will make sure that the software cares about the needs of people with disabilities (including visual, cognitive, auditory, or physical impairments) and allows their alternative access to your app.

7. Test automation

Automated testing helps pass the exhaustive testing process full of repetitive tasks faster by eliminating manual checking of user flows and scenarios. With forward-looking test automation approach and the right tools, more critical bugs can be found before go-live to provide quality at speed.

These are the main testing types that are to be included in the testing strategy while working with financial technology software. It is also important to conduct regression testing to ascertain that any changes enhancing user experience haven’t damaged the security, accuracy, compliance, and other issues and wisely automate it as much as possible.

Along with that, checking the usability for boosting user experience and ensuring rigorous compatibility with different OSs and environments are important too.

Testing services for fintech apps

Summing up

Over the years, we have seen technology hitting almost every industry, and BSFI is not the exception. Thanks to consumers, financial and other companies try to cater to them applications that can ease their lives.

Financial technology software will always be in dire need of quality assurance helping launch a bug-free and highly competitive product.

Software testing leverages its force to find the mistakes, their causes, and ascertain they are fixed before hundreds or thousands or more end users have started to work with the system processing and serving sensitive data. To get confident in the fintech app’s quality and readiness for showing the world, write us a note to get a consultation on QA-related problems.

For the moment, companies strive to win end customers’ attention in all sorts of ways. Digital transformation was one of those processes that tremendously changed this attitude. Building long-term relationships with end users and making them stay with your brand is essential for every company that has a software product.

The products differ. What about CRM that has become the largest of all software markets by 2018 according to Gartner research?

CRM – a strong technological system – can be also considered a unique strategy helping companies improve customer management and achieve greater business goals.

In this material, we are talking about our experience in testing CRMs and highlighting some useful advice on how to make the QA process more efficient.

Preventing major perils of CRM functioning

In the ever-growing IT world, the cost of one little CRM software mistake can take its toll and strike many business areas including finances (low ROI, up to market share loss, and more), customers (e.g. dissatisfied clients, decreased time to market, ropey brand reputation, and other), etc.

When can low-quality CRM damage the relationships with the customers?

There are many reasons for CRM failures be it a poor business need setting, unstructured planning, implementation missteps, or lack of change management.

Missed appointments because of non-working notifications, late arrival of goods as a result of wrong delivery status – the list is endless. These cases can dishearten sales, marketing, and other departments from using the system at all.

For this reason, after a clear goal-setting and deciding on a shared company vision about CRM, it’s high time to think about delivering a strong software product. No matter what target audience is involved in using CRM – they expect you to roll out a flawless application.

Why should you take action and start improving the system quality?

The CRM, which is tested incorrectly or not tested at all, is vulnerable to numerous mistakes, which can take an impact on your work. The unfound and unfixed defects can bring an erroneous impression on the customer relationship management process. This can result in wrong decisions leading to the loss of clients. At the time, your competitor utilizes top-notch software to build long-term relationships with the customers and boost sales.

Indeed, the vast majority of CRM failures can be exposed during the accurate QA process. To organize the checks correctly, create a clear test strategy, onboard skilled industry specialists, and go further.

What should a successful CRM testing embrace?

To bring impressive results, CRM checks should encompass the main aspects of smooth system functioning.

  • Data accuracy

It makes sense to prioritize data checks, as high-quality customer data management (CDM) is the heart of your system. While testing the data warehouse (DW), the QA engineers assure that the system is not filled up with invalid data. During data quality testing, the specialists ensure whether CRM processes data as expected: no duplicated or lost data; no hidden data becomes public; no inaccurately reflected or sorted data.

Moreover, as soon as you have some amount of data migrated to the CRM platform, you need to make sure data can move around freely.

  • Functionality

When you want to ascertain that all the required functional ranges are processed accurately, go for functional testing.

Some CRM system features that ought to be tested by QA engineers include smoothly running user permissions, absence of data mismatch of users with similar names, receipts-specific aspects (e.g. right name of the brand) as well as the saved connection between stores.

  • Performance

Are your team players waiting 30 minutes for each report to generate? Performance testing is here to define the level of platform operability and help improve the system to achieve the desired level of load handling. The QA team will identify whether the system can cope with hundreds or thousands of simultaneously working users, will explore parameters that influence performance, and provide its recommendations for improvements.

  • Security

If the terms GDPR or CCPA are not first-told, there is no secret for you that each CRM should fully comply with data security arrangements. It is about the system comprising a high volume of confidential data including established for ages client base that ought to be secured.

The need for security testing becomes more considerable when a vast array of employees and institutions apply for CRM. A correctly settled checking process helps ensure that the data is well-protected against unauthorized access and cannot be damaged or lost.

  • Integrations

In CRM, a large amount of information is transferred to the ERP platform, financial system, DW, and many more. In a chase to avoid pitfalls, the QA team conducts integration checks and ensures that CRM data remains consistent during data pass and new adjustments are available in the connected platforms.

Another important moment: while developing customizations, be sure the code of the introduced ones is compatible with the existing CRM code and is not hindering the system performance.

  • Regression

Custom-developed improvements can create more new defects. After adding even a small adjustment, one should necessarily ensure that the code of the newly introduced feature hasn’t disturbed existing software functions. Through this testing, the QA team will permanently verify that your CRM works smoothly after all changes and is still stable.

Test automation? Yes!

It is an indispensable assistant in long-term projects helping save time and increase ROI by developing test scripts that can be applied in regression testing. Test automation facilitates performing lengthy QA activities and those embracing the huge scope of data.

Have a look at the process of how the a1qa specialists introduced test automation on the project with the client – a US-based manufacturer of home appliances – and helped him save 90% of manual testing efforts.

Test automation report at the 9th a1qa summer conference

Source: the presentation from the 9th a1qa summer professional conference

What to expect in the future?

Based on the latest Gartner’s technology predictions for CRM and best-in-class customer experience, we are sure that awareness of trickiest CRM testing cases can help understand the process better, apply for demanded service, and not be overwhelmed by software specifics.

The research and advisory company states that organizations shouldn’t be afraid of innovations like AI and ML. Together with AR/VR, they are revolutionizing sales and customer service.

To strengthen at minimum one basic sales process, 30% of all B2B companies will adopt AI by 2020. Besides, customer service organizations implementing artificial intelligence in their multichannel customer engagement platform will enhance operational efficiency by 25% by 2025.

Does your CRM system need to be diagnosed? Our team of experts will jump-start your move to the flawless software.

Web application testing service is a general term that denotes different types of testing.

The main goal of any testing endeavor is to detect where there are faults/bottlenecks in your software that may cause harm to your business and find possible ways to prevent them.

In this 5-minute read guide, we’ll help you understand what every of these terms mean and how they help you to get what you want most – certainty of success in your IT project.

Three areas of concern that web application testing addresses

1. Does your app do what it is expected to do?

Functional Testing is the process of evaluating the behavior of the application to determine if all the functions perform as you expect them to perform. Examples of functional behavior include everything from limiting access to authorized users to accurately processing all transactions and correctly logging out.

Functional testing can be performed in different ways: using formal test cases or by means of exploratory testing techniques.

2. Will you app function correctly on all browsers and devices that your customers use?

Compatibility or Cross-Browser Testing is the process of evaluating the behavior of the app in a variety of configurations that include numerous browsers, screen resolutions, and operating systems.

Examples of proper Cross-Browser Testing may include testing on the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, MS Edge, Safari and on Windows 7, 8 and 10. It’s advised to run tests on a number of latest versions as not all users are prone to go for updates as soon as one is released.

3. Will your web solution survive with a lot of users at the same time? Or will it crash?

Load or Performance Testing is another type of testing that determines the performance limits of the app. The typical final report by QA engineers will include the following:

  • Statistics on the response time from the server for the most crucial transactions
  • Diagrams that show the dependence of the app performance on the number of concurrent users
  • Data about the maximum possible number of concurrent users that would allow the system to cope with the load
  • Information on the system stability and its ability to cope with the continuous load
  • Error statistics
  • Conclusions on the system performance in general, its performance bottlenecks
  • Recommendations for improving the system performance.

Check out how the a1qa web app testing team ran full-cycle testing and ensured the quality of the online movie website.

Other risks that web app testing helps to mitigate

The list of questions that the team of professional QA engineers answers can be continued. Depending on the type of your business and your desire to accept risks, there are other reasons to perform your app testing.

1. Can unauthorized users access the app?

Security and Penetration Testing is the process to determine how and under what circumstances the app can be hacked. Security testing engineers employ a number of techniques to perform thorough analysis and assess the level of the app security.

Moreover, if the app uses personal data of the customer, it’s vital to make sure the passwords are strong enough.

2. Is you web application properly adapted to the cultural and linguistic peculiarities of the target regions?

Obviously, the localized product creates more business opportunities. Localization Testing is the process of verifying localization quality.

Localization testers will deal with the following:

  • Content and UI elements translation
  • Data and time formats
  • Currency
  • Color schemes, symbols, icons, and other graphic elements that can be misinterpreted in various regions
  • Legal requirements of various regions that should be taken into account.

Actually, the latter point lies in the scope of responsibility of both Localization and Compliance Testing.

3. Compliance testing is the process that verifies the app behavior against the rules and regulations your business is subject to.

An example of compliance testing is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) accessibility compliance that should be considered when developing web products available to people with disabilities.

5 Questions to help you make the right choice

We hope that now you understand the purpose of every testing type. However, it can be still a difficult task to make the right choice and select one or several of them that will help your project.

Here’s a list of five quick questions. If you make your selection based on the answers to them, your chances to select the right testing type and the best QA vendor to perform it get high.

  1. What is the goal for your software development project?
  2. What are the project constraints?
  3. What are the top 3 risks for the project delivery?
  4. What strategy does the QA provider recommend considering the goals and constraints?
  5. What does the provider recommend to mitigate the risks?

Web application testing can be messy and complex but it can also be safe and reliable when you are able to understand your options and select the services that are most valuable for your business.

a1qa provides on-demand web app testing services to help you make it faster to market and delight your customers. Contact us now and get an obligation-free consultation.

What is POS?

A POS (point of sale) is a software-hardware combination designed to bring all merchant’s ecosystem together.

Visually, it is a computer connected to a number of peripheral devices. The computer collects all information on sales transactions and inputs it into the storage system.

Why is it so important to ensure quality of POS solutions through rigorous testing?

Retail is a highly competitive business. A good point of sale can make a significant difference. It will increase process efficiency by eliminating unnecessary work. If the POS doesn’t function as expected it’s likely to cause significant troubles:

  • More man-hours will be needed to process and correct unreliable and slow checkouts.
  • Risks of incorrect records and employees thefts or misbehavior will go up.
  • Costs control will become more challenging.
  • Sales reports will provide erroneous information preventing to make informed business decisions.
  • Promotions, discounts, and coupons will be hard to get tracked.
  • Business may lose loyal customers due to incorrect loyalty members’ data.

Therefore, it’s clear that any POS solution should be reliable, easily scalable and maintainable, highly performing, secure, and customizable. To ensure all this, it demands a lot of focus on testing the solution properly before deploying it.

Throughout POS testing, a QA team should bear in mind

  • Positive and negative scenarios: To prevent any issues at the customer end, test cases should be designed covering every positive and negative scenario (invalid PIN, expired card, etc.).
  • Connected devices: Peripheral devices connected to a POS (a barcode scanner or a cash drawer) may cause some issues that should be considered by a professional QA team.
  • PCI compliance: Electronic payment is the basis of any POS solution. Hence, a good POS system should meet the globally accepted security standard such as PCI compliance to protect cardholders’ data and integrity.
POS testing

Conducting POS testing

A rigorous test scenario aimed at ensuring high quality of POS solutions should include the point given below:

1. Cashier activities: This should be the starting point in every POS testing project.

These are the main points that should be checked by a QA engineer:

  • Correctness of the entry of items purchased
  • Correctness of the Total applied
  • Validity of discount coupons/gift cards
  • Total and closing figures match.

2. Sales: Regular sales, sales with a credit/debit card, manage of return and exchange, quantities and prices.

3. Discounts and promotions applied.

4. Loyalty members data: The system should track who the customers are, what kind of purchases they make, and how often. The effective POS system will also remind you to e-mail your customers prior to their birthday, for example.

5. Performance of the system: How long does it take to send a request and get a response applying all transaction rules?

6. Smart terminal ability to read various kinds of cards.

Testing POS

Testing POS software applications

There are apps for any retail need in the market: accounting apps, eCommerce solutions, employee management, etc. Their objective is to automate and streamline some aspects of the retail workflow. By synchronizing their data with any of the apps, merchants get an opportunity to manage stocktaking and wastage data, increase customers’ loyalty, collect the feedback, etc.

But once again.

Each and every app should be tested.

Usually, it will take functional and integration testing to ensure the app delivers its value. Functional testing will check the app from the functional requirements standpoint, while integration testing will detect any issues related to the app connection to other business software solutions.

When testing apps for POS terminals, one has to focus on all the scenarios. A good tester should be able to get into the shoes’ of a cashier serving the customers and check all the flows.

It’s also important to differentiate between the functionality of the app and that of the POS. To do this, good test documentation is needed and the team should be aware of all business and user requirements.

Check out the case study on how the a1qa ensured the high quality of the POS apps prior to their release.

It’s vital to assess the system performance with any app installed. Slow and irresponsive POS solution will spoil any business. If the app slows the speed of requests handling, it should be uninstalled and replaced by another one that won’t decrease the performance parameters.

Summing up

If you’re engaged in a retail business, evaluation of your POS solution is a vital step to ensure its acceptable level of quality in all essential areas such as reliability, security, recovery management.

Contact a1qa Retail Testing Center of Excellence to learn what QA solution will fit your POS needs best.

Blockchain is a popular and technically complicated subject. Initially the technology was created to serve the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. However as time went by the sphere of the blockchain application widened.

Today any product that uses database can be migrated to the blockchain.

However, it goes without saying that any product should be thoroughly tested before going live. In this article, we focus on testing of the decentralized blockchain-based apps.

Before getting down to testing peculiarities and recommendations, look through the list of terms you’ll need to get a better understanding of the article.

  • Block is a piece of code that contains a list of transactions. The first block in the chain is called the genesis block.
  • Blockchain is a constantly growing chain of blocks. The copies of the chain are stored on a number of computers (nodes) that partake in the network.
  • Cryptocurrency is digital money with no physical equivalent.
  • Bitcoin is a digital payment method and the most popular kind of cryptocurrency these days.
  • Ethereum is the second most popular cryptocurrency with the large market capitalization (second only to Bitcoin).
  • Fork is a change to the blockchain protocol that results in a chain split into two chains that will function independently.
  • Mining is the process by which transactions are verified and added to the blockchain, and also the means through which new Bitcoin are released.
  • Fee is the commission miners get for verifying a transaction and adding it to the blockchain.
  • Smart contract is the protocol that digitally facilitates the negotiation or performance of a contract.
  • Faucets are websites that give away small portions of Bitcoins for free.

Blockchain: what’s in this word for a software testing engineer?

In the first place, the blockchain is the software functionality. In 90% of cases it’s a type of a payment method.

Accordingly, tests should be almost the same as an engineer runs when testing the payment gateway system: transaction process verification, testing all payment components, checking whether additional requirements are met (e.g., terms of a smart contract) and no double-spending opportunities exist.

Three aspects to consider before starting testing blockchain-based apps

1. Specific testing environment

All transactions executed in the blockchain change its current state. In order to add or change any entry, miners’ resources are required. Miners, as you remember, charge fee for verifying a transaction and adding it to the block. That’s why it may appear to be too expensive to perform tests in the live environment.

On one of the a1qa projects, the execution of a single bitcoin transaction cost several hundred USD.

Employing a testnet for running tests will help to avoid losing money and cut down on QA costs. Testnet coins have nothing to do with the actual ones and testers get an opportunity to experiment with the application without being worried of breaking the blockchain.

The team may set up their local testnet or use one of publicly available. For Ethereum-based apps, the Ropsten Network can be used. It uses the same protocol as Ethereum does and allows to get free coins from a pool of the Ethereum faucet. Instantly.

And do not forget to return the left coins to the faucet website. This is the matter of courtesy.

Also keep it in mind that even if you prefer to use the testnet, you will also have to deal with miners who validate transactions in the network. However, they are not that numerous in the testnet as comparing to the real network. So it will take more time to validate the transaction.

To speed up testing, you can set up several virtual networks and start mining yourself. It will take less power than verification of real cryptocurrency transactions.

2. Transactions are irreversible

All blockchain-based apps are decentralized. This is the main idea behind them. Decentralization means that the app resides on numerous computers and its code can be accessed by anyone. As there is no central server, 99% of failures, errors that made it to the blockchain can not be reversed.

Knowing this, it becomes extremely important to make sure all transaction details are correct before sending them to the network. Any missed defect will be a critical one.

It makes the testers’ job even more responsible.

3. All transactions are paid

This point correlates with the first one. The tester’s task is to guarantee the mistake-free process of the transactions adding and processing in the network. However, as any transaction in the blockchain requires the fee, it makes testing process rather specific.

If you test in a real Bitcoin network, remember that besides the input itself, you’ll have to pay to miners to get your transaction processed.

In Ethereum, every transaction a certain number of gas, which is the special currency used in the network. Operations that require more computational resources cost more gas.

It’s also important to know the difference between the gas cost and gas price.

The gas cost is the amount of work that goes into something (e.g. the number of hours of labour). The gas price is similar to the hourly wage you pay for the work to be done. The combination of the two determines the total transaction fee.

Remember: if the gas price is very low, no one in the network will process it.

What types of testing are relevant for blockchain-based apps?

As we’ve already mentioned, testing of the blockchain products slightly differs from testing payment apps and looks like a functional testing of the payment gateway system.

Test plan will take into account the predefined requirements from stakeholders.

A software engineer should consider the requirements and think creatively to generate test ideas and cover the most improbable user scenarios.

High quality of the final product can be assured through the following standard testing types:

Functional testing will help to understand whether all the functional requirements have been implemented by the dev team.

Load testing will help to determine the capacity of the system that directly interacts with the blockchain.

Security testing. The blockchain is anonymous. Any holder of the private key will have access to the wallet and the right to sign the transactions. The system of keys storage and encrypting is yet vulnerable to security attacks. Pen testing will help to identify and eliminate the bottlenecks.

What tools will you need for testing?

The selection of the right testing tools is the first step to successful and effective testing. This is the list that might be considered by those who’ll have to ensure the blockchain-based apps:

  • Testnet indexing tool. For example, the website ropsten.etherscan.io allows to check the real-time wallet balance and the detailed information on any transaction.
  • Bug and test tracking tools.
  • It can be required to set up a local node for the given blockchain. There are various tools with comfortable UI that will help doing this.
  • API testing tools (Postman, soapUI).
  • Database testing tools.
  • Encoding and encryption software.

Will blockchain-based apps benefit from test automation?

Like on any other testing project, decentralized apps can be tested automatically.

What is more, given the sheer number of nodes and combinations that are likely to take part, automation of testing becomes an important need.

Test results can be easily compared by analyzing the real information in the network or sending requests to the testnet indexing website.

How to choose the testing team?

Not so many QA teams can boast of having worked with the blockchain technology. However, the following testing capabilities can compensate for the lack of experience: good knowledge of the customer’s domain, analytical mindset, skills in reading the code and pseudo code.

The tester that will be involved in testing the blockchain apps should follow the development of the technology, its forks and be good at numbers. Yes, there will be a lot of counting job with the blockchain verification.

Afterword

The technology of blockchain catches on and more and more industries open up its opportunities.

Considering the scale of its application, the growing level of users’ competence and the critical status of defects that get into the network, testing must be viewed as an integral part of the development lifecycle.

Book an obligation-free consultation by the a1qa pros and learn how our solutions will help your product hit the mark.

In 2016 IDC Health Insights reported that 40% of the US healthcare providers scaled up their IT budgets. The expanding budgets attribute to the development of top-notch cloud solutions and clinical applications, including EHR/EMR solutions, patients’ engagements portals, revenue cycle management and other medical software.

Given the constant growth of the medical IT market and high quality requirements, healthcare solutions need a smart approach to eliminate any inconveniences, pain points before the software will be blamed for irrevocable mistakes.

Based on a1qa almost 15-year experience in software testing for both ISVs and healthcare suppliers, we share our tried and tested tips to ensure that the solution is reliable, secure, well-performing and provides the required user experience for healthcare professionals, patients, administrative personnel and other parties involved.

Main points of testing reference

With the great variety of medical software solutions on the market, any of them should be mobile-friendly, secure, convenient, possess a user-friendly interface. Localization to all target markets or the world’s mostly used languages wouldn’t go amiss as well.

Healthcare IT testing strategy should include:

1. Functional testing

Healthcare software products provide complicated functionality that directly impacts humans. Therefore, assuring that the software functions as it was meant to – step number one for QA vendors. It makes no sense to go any further if the surgeon won’t be able to check in to the app from the operating theatre to inform about the need of the blood transfusion.

2. Performance testing

The app should respond fast. In the medical context, it’s not a passing fancy, but a necessity. Timely load and performance testing according to real-world scenarios and load metrics will guarantee the app won’t fail when it’s needed most and will handle as many concurrent users as it was developed to.

3. Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing

Healthcare software deals with confidential personal health information. And this information has become a target for high-profile cyber attacks. Back in May 2017, tens of thousands of computers at hospitals and GPs across the countries in Europe and Asia were hit. The malware blocked access to blood results, patients’ history and prescription files on a PC until a ransom was paid.

Kaspersky Lab estimated that 45,000 attacks had been carried out in 99 countries before the virus spread to the USA.

If anyone doubted about the importance of the security testing, 2017 dispelled them. Testing healthcare IT products for vulnerabilities is a top priority. Fortunately, QA providers have a legal framework to rely on.

HIPAA is the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that makes provisions for safeguarding patients information.

At a1qa, we assign medical software security testing on HIPAA-certified engineers who are fully competent to handle patients’ information to ensure its security.

4. UX testing

Usability testing is a crucial step within a healthcare setting. What does it have for a quality assurance team? First of all, it brings about the necessity to identify all roles of the software users, and develop diverse test cases to cover all user scenarios. A tester should be careful and meticulous to gather the right data and interpreting it in the correct way.

5. Assessing localization quality

It’s hardly possible to find a hospital where all the personnel and all patients belong to one nationality and speak a common language. To address the language issue, most developers strive to make their medical IT solutions international. Therefore, internationalization readiness and localization quality should be tested as well. It will guarantee that the app can be reliably used from any location by the representative of any linguistic group (the target one, of course).

6. Focus on mobile experience

Mobile devices have hugely impacted various fields, including healthcare. The mobile experience has transformed many aspects of clinical practice. Healthcare professionals have gained aid in patient management and monitoring, health records maintenance and access, and many other routine but still very important, tasks.

Therefore, testing specialists should pay special attention to assuring quality of the mobile apps. Selecting right suite of real mobile or/and wearable devices, developing accurate test cases and simulating real-use conditions are one of the most important steps to successful testing.

Domain knowledge accumulation is a must

Strong technology expertise is required to perform informative testing. However, domain knowledge is also very important. Healthcare is a highly regulated domain. Moreover, it is prone to constant changes. To be knowledgeable, we recommend testing specialists study reliable sources of healthcare information, online magazines, regular in-filed reports, etc.

Summing up

The constant growth of IT investments by healthcare vendors signals the need for testing providers to practice medical software testing with the focus on domain regulations, security, performance, usability, and attention to mobile experience. And only a highly professional team with an eye to detail will help to eliminate all the bottlenecks before the software will be delivered to final users.

Today we’ve shared the basis of our medical software testing approach. To learn how we implemented the comprehensive approach in practice – click here.

Stay tuned to find out more testing insights from a1qa team.

“Is domain knowledge required for software testers?” was the question once we bumped into on Quora and the one that was right to the point. At that moment one of our QA teams was assuring the quality of the large software product from the pharmaceutical industry. It proved to be experienced, to excel in we needed not only comprehensive technical skills but also very strong domain knowledge.

From our experience, we’d like to share some tips with QA engineers who can also get involved in testing pharma and want to excel. In short, this article will be your first step and a guide on your pharmaceutical knowledge quest.

To those who are new to pharmaceutical industry: 4 basics you should know before stepping into testing

While this knowledge may be irrelevant for testers directly, it helps perceive the spirit of the industry.

  1. Pharmaceutical companies develop, produce, and ship drugs for medication.
  2. The main business objects of pharma companies are brand medications, medical devices or generic drugs. (Generics – drugs that are equal to brand-name products by nature and the difference between the two is not medically significant).
  3. Pharma companies are subject to numerous laws and regulations regarding patenting, testing and ensuring safety and efficacy.
  4. Pharmaceutical market growth is driven by emerging markets such as China, Brazil, India.

As for our case, the customer realized the importance of both high-quality assurance and knowledge transfer. With this in mind, he conducted constant knowledge sessions to teach us, testers, the business context of the product development and the basics of the industry in general.

Before testing, you should also be aware of the main issues facing the industry. Taking them into account, you will show your competence to the customer and share his main concerns.

  1. The time to get a product to market is taking longer, thus shortening the patent exclusivity period.
  2. Companies are struggling with the drugs pipeline.
  3. Major companies are facing generic competition.
  4. Cutting costs (headcount reduction, introducing lean techniques) is the key topic across the industry.

8 tips for testing pharmaceutical software

Tip #1

Test accuracy and relevance of the data and numbers entered into the system. A slight change in numbers may result in significant changes and defects. Since the pharma software deals with medicine, incorrect data can have very serious consequences (wrong dosage, for example).

So, you have to pay a lot of attention to data verification. Pay attention to the following: for American customers – the dates need to be American format, and of course for European customers – European format. For example, 3.5.2017 in France will be read as the third of May, 2017. In the USA – the fifth of March, 2017.

Tip #2

Don’t forget to learn the requirements of the environment, regions, and languages the software should be tested against. Keep in mind that there are different operating systems locales in different regions and communication protocols may function with errors.

Tip#3

Usability testing is very important. It’s vital to identify the type of personas who will use the system and test it according to their usage scenarios. Nurses, physicians, patients expect different functions from the system. Any inconvenience in these scenarios is critical. Think from the users’ perspective to find all the bugs.

Tip#4

Take into account FDA guidelines. Food and Drug Administration provides guidelines for mobile and web healthcare applications for medical devices. For example, there are strict criteria for functional tests passing or failing.

Tip#5

Naming matters. You will most probably come across different medicine known under different names or differing in one letter only. Make sure they are all spelled correctly, as this can also result in very severe consequences. We checked all the names on the EphRMA website. Ask your customer about the reliable source of such information.

To be on the safe side, check the list of medications with those legally permitted in the target countries.

Tip #6

Devices play a big role in pharmacy management systems. For example, bar code scanners. Their usage has to be tested because medicine can’t be delivered to patients without them.

Tip #7

In case you’ll have to work with emulators, check the emulators first to make sure that the defects you’ll come across have arisen due to poor integration.

Tip #8

Pharmacy systems always communicate with other systems, e.g. payment systems, insurance systems, and welfare systems. These systems will confirm or reject the transaction, so communication has to be consistent and reliable. In short, integration and thorough performance testing is a must.

Testing pharmaceutical software

So these are the basics of the pharma domain and our tips to perform comprehensive pharma software testing.

Have you ever verified the quality of healthcare or pharma apps? Don’t hesitate to drop us a comment!

White box testing is the approach based upon logical check of the migration script. With the knowledge about the database source and receiver structure the team of QA engineers test completeness and correctness of the script. Still, to start white box migration testing the database should comply with the certain preconditions.

  1. Detailed script description (it should prevent the issues of incorrect data migration or the incompleteness)
  2. Structure of the source and the receiver
  3. Data Migration Mapping (set of migration rules written in any suitable format)

When the testers finally jump start the testing process, they get through the standard points:

  • Check of the number of migrated registries
  • The data are migrated to the appropriate place
  • The data fullness
  • Filling of the obligatory fields
  • The proper source and receiver fields processing
  • Accounting business logic changes

Along with these points of migration script check, testers apply the analysis of the SQL code. The approach covers in details the database structure, used data storage formats, migration requirements, analysis of substances, difference among them and their correct processing. The formats of fields and the migration script transformations are also of great importance.

The white box testing approach requires specified knowledge from a tester, unlike the black box approach.

Still, you rarely meet the applying purely the black box or the white box approach, often the complex approach is used. In the complex approach the QA engineers first check the logic of the migration script (white box approach), then they run functional tests (black box approach) on the application to check the migrated data.

The process of migration testing starts with the analysis of migration requirements, afterwards the approach is defined. The analysis bases upon such points as:

  • Type of data to be migrated
  • Data sources
  • Documentation analysis, describing the migration process
  • Database alterations analysis
  • Database structure and type
  • Data storage format
  • Analysis of migration method
  • Migration approach method

As long as the tester is ready with the analysis, it is time to choose between the types of migration approach. There are three of them:

  1. Black box testing
  2. White box testing
  3. Complex approach

The analysis results are not the only parameters for choosing the approach. You are to pay the attention to the task complexity, client and project manager preferences, employee awareness of database management system specifics and some others. Besides, the more difference between the database source, receiver and data storage formats, the more complex the task is.

Black box testing is the most frequently applied approach. The approach includes running functional tests of the migrated data. The tester validates the way the system processes data: data overview, alteration, search, report creation and some other business operations. The approach, in fact, doesn`t require additional knowledge from a tester.

The execution of functional tests in the back box testing approach allows defining the non-compliance with the system performance requirements before the complex process of load testing. It detects the errors of database simultaneous usage by several users and challenges in request processing.

Still functional tests are not the leading preference in data migration testing. Performance and load tests are of great importance also. High operations processing, defines the new database efficiency and accuracy.
In our next post we`ll make the white box testing overview.

Julia Liber is head of Telecom and Web application testing department at a1qa . In this role, she manages the Internet applications and telecom systems testing team and provides consulting for wireless operators. She also assists with organizing the testing process and the acceptance phase for modification or new billing solution implementations.

Would you say testing in OSS/BSS is a trivial task? Definitely not

It usually takes at least a couple of days just to test functionality. While implementing a new system/subsystem or changing functionality, there are so many questions to be answered. Which product to choose for testing? Which tariff plan to choose for testing? What kind of charges to check, and what type of subscribers to use?

It is obviously impossible to cover all possible options and combinations during functional testing, so it is necessary to select the most important products and services.

At this point, the thought comes to mind to turn to the good old engineering approach of back-to-back testing, which is based on the law of large numbers. The point is simple: It is necessary to compare system behavior using the same data. Imagine that we have two environments:

  1. Production — your live system serving subscribers
  2. Testing — your environment intended for testing.

First, at a specific date/time, usually after a billing period has been completed, we transfer copies of user data (migration data) and the product catalog (configuration data) to the testing stand. At the end of the reporting period (month or week, depending on the timing of the invoice), a copy of the input data for each transaction (payments, charges, maintenance fees) is loaded into the testing environment.

First, the output data has being processed from both environments. Second, it is placed on a comparison server. Then, specially developed script checks if the number of transactions and the charges from both environments match. The matching and unmatched numbers, the results of this comparison, are the input data for testers.

What’s next? The testing team goes to work. Testers analyze the records based on any discrepancies between the two sets of results. The causes for the differences are identified, the records are grouped into causes, and we get the results in the following format:

Numerical discrepancies:

  • 5 percent of records could not boot due to a functional defect 1
  • 3.5 percent of records could not be loaded due to a functional defect 2
  • 1 percent of records could not boot due to a functional defect 3
  • 0.5 percent of records could not be loaded due to a functional defect 4

Discrepancies in the amount of write-offs:

  • 7 percent of records are processed improperly because of a defect in the configuration No. 5
  • 1 percent of records are processed improperly because of a defect in the configuration No. 5
  • 0.5 percent of records processed improperly because of a defect in the configuration  No. 5
  • 0.1 percent of records processed improperly because of a defect in the configuration No. 5

What is the outcome of this approach?

  1. It provides complete coverage of the product catalog, through the activities of real users. The system tests exactly what is used by subscribers;
  2. It checks the quality of the configuration and system migration, as well as the most critical functionality for OSS/BSS parts: rating, billing and payments;
  3. It helps clearly prioritize defects that are present in the system based on the needs of the business. Let’s say, it is more important to correct defect No. 1, compared to defects No. 3 or No. 4, since defect No. 1 does more damage to the business;
  4. Because testing takes place on a large volume of data, this is a good way to test how well the new version of the system can withstand real-world loading.

Of course, there are limitations to this approach.

First, the data comparison is always dependent on what type of OSS/BSS you use. It will be necessary to develop a unique script for your system to compare and select data to analyze. Second, in the ideal case, the test environment must comply with the product environment. Otherwise, there is a risk that you won’t meet the deadline because the test environment processes transactions too slowly.

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